


Fix the sky

by RyuuLu



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Medical, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Siblings, mama may
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 26,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29188653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyuuLu/pseuds/RyuuLu
Summary: The gun wound wasn't the only thing the GH-325 healed on Skye. The reason as to why she joined S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't the only thing she had been keeping quiet about.But when things finally look good, something has to happen. At least she has proper help this time around.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Melinda May, Leo Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Maria Hill & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Natasha Romanov & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 33
Kudos: 153





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I started working on when I was in a dark place, that now has taken on a life of its own.
> 
> English isn't my first language and the dyslexia doesn't help, but hey! If it was easy, it wouldn't be fun

Ever since she was a teenager, she knew there was something wrong with her and when they finally found the tumour in her brain, she knew her life would never be the same again. She had gotten her death sentence when she was 13 years old. She had always been smarter than everyone else in her age and could easily see things that others missed around her.

But when she found out about the tumour and the family, she lived with during that time had started to talk about sending her back, was when Skye finally decided to run away. She knew no one would like to take care of her now, it had been hard enough during the time she waited for them to find out just what is wrong. Now that she knows it would be a lot harder.

It wasn’t all too hard for her to get what she needed to survive on her own, but she did learn quite fast not to show how smart she really was. She got away with a lot of things by acting stupid, didn’t mean she liked the idea of doing it. She was going to die anyway so she thought that she should just live her life the best she could now and deal with the end when she got there.

She come across the Rising Tied on her travels and she couldn’t see why she wouldn’t join them. She thought she had finally found a few people that was good to her, she had been wrong about that. When Coulson and Ward had taken her way from her beloved van and later on when she had joined the S.H.I.E.L.D team she founds out exactly what they had done.

She made a decision then and there; she was going to stay there. For her own health it was better to live with them on the BUS instead of the van. Then there was the advantage of having S.H.I.E.L.D technology around her, it meant she would be able to keep track on how the tumour is going. She did her first check up on her first proper night on the BUS, she had after all not been to a doctors appointment for a long time and she wanted to see how much time she probably had left.

Deep down she knew it had grown, not as much as it had but still grown. She was definitely running out of time; she had already gone over the time from what the doctors had said but she was now finally starting to get closer to the end game. She saved everything on her own computer before deleting all evidence from the BUS system. This team couldn’t know about her having this tumour, neither could they know about her IQ. At the moment they thought she was just a drop out hacktivist and for their own sake it is for the best.

Before she knew it, she had grown close to the group and had finally started to relax. She had finally found her spot in this world and she could be herself, at least a bit more than she had been able to be in other places. Then it happened, two gun shoots to her stomach and she finds herself knocking on deaths door. She wasn’t completely sure how she was feeling about this, which was the best way to die? To die due to a tumour in her brain or being shoot to death?

The team managed to save her somehow, they healed her wounds and without them knowing it; the tumour had disappeared too. She had finally a chance to live a full life, she could really have a life she always wanted. But then everything changes when HYDRA come out from the shadows, Ward being the one of them. It was the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D and now they were all hiding, trying to rebuild an organisation that she had come to love; this time the right way.

The only problem now was the team, they were not the same after the betrayal and everything that happened. Fitz was now broken to pieces and he always made sure to keep to himself, Coulson was working around the clock to rebuild the world he knew and love. Simons left them for something, no one really knew where she went or what she is doing. May is at least doing what she always does, trying to make sure everyone is doing alright and keeping a close eye on Coulson. Trip, being the newcomer in the group tried to make sure everyone has a laugh from time to time; it was a good gesture but not always welcomed in a time of darkness. The agents that had joined them was nice people but they were not was needed for her at the moment.

She was making sure to keep to herself too when working, she had a long list of things that had to be done; she was the best person they had when it comes computers and security systems. The lab was the best place for the silence she needed, she knew Fitz was there, but she didn’t mind having him around; it gave her a reason to make sure he was alright. He had not taken it well when Simmons had left him after he woke up from the coma, but he was good company when he was in a good mode.

And then Simmons returns back from her mission and the tension between her and Fitz was heavy and Skye made sure she was in the lab more often; just to be there if he needed her. They always ended up fighting now and it was hard to see him, he was broken but he was still the same person and she knew exactly how he was feeling. Not that they know anything about that.

Then there was the fact that Fitz had managed to grow a lot during the time Simmons was away, he had started to get out of his shell. Then things went back to what it had been when Simmons tried to treat Fitz differently from before. She was dancing around him like he was some type of china doll. She had been working hard with the security system when she hears the door opens and the familiar sound of Simmons walking into the room. Without really helping it, Skye starts to slow down her work and listen carefully on what was about to happen. She had made sure to place herself in a spot where neither of them could see her; but she was able to see them.

It didn’t take them long to start argue once more and only a few seconds later; Simmons leaves the lab once more. Once the lab doors close, Skye could hear how Fitz slams his hand into the table; since she wasn’t ready for that action, she jumped in her chair before shaking her head. Closing the laptop lid, she raises up from the chair. With the computer under her arm, she leaves her hiding spot and takes the empty seat beside Fitz, not that he realises she walks up to him.

“Skye?”

It took Fitz five minutes to calm down enough to realise that she was sitting beside him, once more working on her computer.

“Just thought you needed company.”

She answered, not even looking away from her computers screen as she does.

“If you need anything, just poke me and I’ll help you or just sit here if you need to talk. If you feel like you need to hug something you can just hug away, your hugs are still the best thing in the world.”

She then adds, from the corner of her eye she could see that Fitz seemed to relax slightly and he soon returns back to work on his project and silence fell around them. This was just what she needed and so did he. Skye let herself fall deeper into her own mind as she was working, she had not done that in a while and she could feel that something was wrong. In that moment, she just ignored it; she could try and figure out what it is later on.

It could just be an old feeling from before GH-325 that was messing with her. But when a single drop of pure crimson falls down on her keyboard, this made her stop working and she just looks at the drop. Her head was spinning and her eyes lost focus as she looked at the blood. A hand on her shoulder made her turn her head fast, a little too fast as the room started to spin around her. With a deep breath, she tried to focus on the concern looking Fitz.

Moving her hand towards her nose, she made sure that there was no more blood flowing.

“Sorry about that.”

She tells Fitz the moment she is sure there is no more blood coming from her nose and she looks away from him once more.

“A… are you… A… a… alright?”

He managed to get out after a few tries and Skye couldn’t help the small eyeroll.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

She answered simply and she could feel how Fitz tensed up beside her and she let’s out a heavy sigh. She was making things worse now and that was the last thing she wanted to do towards him.

“Fitz I…”

She starts to say but he just shakes his head and turns his own attention back to his work.

“N… No… I.. I… I do not wa… wa… want any ap… app.. apology.”

Fitz manage to get out and Skye let’s her head fall forwards slightly.

“I wasn’t going to give you any sympathy or anything like that Fitz.”

She tells him and takes in a deep breath. The tumour is gone now and she knows she needs to tell him, that way he would know he isn’t the only one that is broken. That there is a chance that he can get better, she did after all. He had managed to pull through the coma and had started to build himself up. What had she done? She run away the moment she found out about the tumour, even after it was gone she kept on hiding. Turning her attention back to her computer screen once more, she closes down the work she had open and started to open up a file she had not opened in a long time.

Pulling up the scans of her brain, she turns the computer towards Fitz and he looks at it out of surprise. Silence fell once more and Skye watches as Fitz leans towards the computer so he could take a proper look at what she is showing her.

“I know fully well how it feels to be different and have nothing that could fix it all up.”

She then tells him and she could see how his eyes grows large when he realises what it is he’s looking at.

“It is gone now, GH-325 didn’t just healed the gun wounds, it also took care of the tumour.”

She continues to explain and Fitz looks up at her, she had a hard time reading the expression in her eyes.

“H… how… long?”

He asks and Skye smiles weakly.

“I was 13 when they found it.”

She starts to say, her eyes traveling back towards the screen once more and she looks at the thing that has costed her so much pain in the past.

“Not to mention that I do have a high IQ. I do understand everything you and Simmons talked about when you thought you were speaking your own language. It was just easier to act like I was stupide.”

She adds and she was sure that his eyes had grown even larger at this. Before either of them has a chance to say or do anything else, he hits her over her arm and Skye can’t stop the laugh from escaping her lips. She turns the computer back to herself and turns of the things she had opened up for Fitz to look at.

“Now, this talk never happened and we need to work.”

She orders him and Fitz nods his head and he turns back to his own work once more, letting the silence fall over them yet again. This time however, things are more calm between them and Skye managed to relax once more.


	2. Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting two chapters instead of sleeping... oops ^^'

He eyed every single agent in the base that he passed by, he had not seen Simmons yet that day and the other agents is keeping away from him too, acting as if he was a ticking time bomb that would go up any second. He was looking for Skye in that moment so he didn’t really care about the others. He had grown used to having her around in the lab when he is working. She was also the only one that actually understood him. He was really happy that she had actually trusted him with her secret.

Even if Skye had said that the tumour is gone, he made sure to keep a close eye on her. That nose bleed was not a normal one and he wanted to make sure she was alright. His feet was taking him towards the lab, he comes to a complete halt before turning towards the gym instead. As she gets closer, he could hear voices, voices he knew very well.

Moving carefully towards the door, he pushed it open without a sound and steps in. The moment he does, his eyes lands on Skye that is laying on the floor; breathing heavily and he can’t decide if it’s from the training she is doing with May or it’s from something else. He swallows as he sees Skye slowly rise to her feet once more and took her stand. As he looks at her closely, he could see how her whole body is shaking.

“Come on Skye, again.”

May orders and Fitz moves his eyes from Skye to look at May and he couldn’t stop from narrowing his eyes. Couldn’t she take it a bit easier, she must be able to see that something is wrong with Skye. He shakes his head, trying to push away the sudden anger he is feeling towards the older agent. He had no right feeling angry that May was pushing her student as hard as she is, she didn’t know the things he knew about Skye after all.

“Try to calculate my moves and take help from the things around you. You are able to do this, I know because you had no problems a month ago.”

May starts to speak once more and Fitz looks up a this. Something had sparked in his mind, he had been trying to find out if there had been a change in Skye for the past couple of weeks but there was nothing he could see that was a big change. But when May had pointed out that she had been better at this a month ago, Fitz realised that there had been something that had change. She had started to hang around more in the lab and she had started to look more tired and spacing off.

Back then he had only thought it was the stress that was finally catching up with her, but now; now he wasn’t all to sure anymore. He turns his attention back to Skye once more and he could see that she had taken a proper stand once more, her body was still shaking but he could see that she was focusing on something. Her eyes was closed and she took a few deep breath before opening them once more and goes to attack towards May.

The older agent was waiting for the attack and she simply blocks it, or tries to block it at least. In the last second, Skye had change the attack and before May has a chance to register what had happened, she is the one laying on the floor. Skye takes a few steps back and turns her head away from May. The older woman is looking at Skye, there was a hint of surprise in her eyes and she was smiling one of her signature smiles. Fitz however, is looking at Skye closely and he can see that something isn’t right. From where he is standing, he can see what Skye is trying to hide from her. Blood was falling from her nose once more and he could see that it was a miracle she was able to stand up on her very own.

“Now that, is how you do it.”

May tells her and she is about to get up from the floor; only to stop when Skye let’s out a small cry of pain and her hands fly’s up to her head. Fitz keeps his eyes on Skye during the whole time and the moment he sees that she is about to fall, he moves from his hiding spot. He reaches her just in time to catch her.

“I got you, I got you.”

Fitz tells her in a low voice but it was clear that Skye was in to much of pain to fully listen to him.

“It hurts. I… I can’t stop it. Make it stop.”

She cries out and Fitz hugs her close to him. In the corner of his eye, he can see how May, now being on her feet, move towards them but he simply shields Skye with his own body.

“H… hey, co.. con… concentrate on one thing. Ju… just th… th… think about one thing. H… how are yo… you go… going to fi… fi… find the last card for… for Coulson.”

He speaks in a low voice, he had to make sure Skye starts to think about something else. It took a few seconds for her to calm down in his arms, once she does, Fitz relaxes himself too.

“We are going to do a CT scan and that is now.”

He then orders, surprising himself that he was able to say it in one go. He had to think about that later, now wasn’t the time for something like this. What he had to do now is to make sure that Skye is completely alright.

“I… I’m fine.”

Skye gets out and she tries to stand up on her own now, to brush of everything that had just happened. She was about to add something else, but Fitz didn’t give her the chance to say what was on her mind. He had stand up was now pulling her with him out from the gym and towards the lab.

“No your n… not. Some… Something is w… wrong and I ne… need to know what it is.”

He tells her, determination shining in his eyes. He could feel how Skye is trying to get away from his grip but she failed at that. He was a lot stronger than he looked to be, that or she was to weak in that moment to fully fight him. She knew he only meant well and the moment the CT scan shows him nothing is wrong; he would let it go. The moment they enter the lab, Fitz’s eyes narrows as he looks at the agents that was in his lab.

“Get out!”

He orders, anger clear in his voice as he spoke. Something that helped his cost in that moment since the agents all but run away from the lab. Once the room was empty, Fitz leads Skye down to the small CT scan that had been placed in the base and he helps her sit down for the moment.

“Now, y… you need too.”

He starts to say but Skye simply lay down and closes her eyes. She had done this so many times already.

“Be absolutely still, I know the drill Fitz.”

She tells him and Fitz rolls his eyes. He turns to the computer screen and started up the machine. Both of them takes a deep breath as the scanning process begins and once the scan is done, Fitz keeps his eyes locked on the screen. The moment the picture appears, he was quite sure he would faint in that moment. He had been hopping so much that Skye had been right, that she was fine. He should however have known nothing seems to be going their way at the moment.

“What is going on here?”

He jumps, he had not heard that May had been following them and now she is standing behind him, her own eyes on the screen in front of him.


	3. Part 3

She knew something had been going on with her rookie, she had just hoped that the otherwise talkative girl would just tell her what is wrong; like she always do. This time it had been different, this time she had pulled herself away from everyone; or so she had thought. It seemed as if she had been talking to someone at least, she didn’t like the fact that what ever was going on is being kept a secret, specially when it seemed to be something they should be knowing. What made her even more worried was the fact that the girl who use to hate secret so much would keep a large one now.

She would have given her more time to come clean, but what had just happened in front of her eyes in the gym. Something was horribly wrong, and she couldn’t do something, the girl who had somehow managed to break through her walls was in tribal pain in front of her eyes and there wasn’t a single thing she could do about it. Fitz had however managed to calm her down and before she was able to question both of them about what is going on, Fitz drags the weaken Skye away from her and out from the gym.

She looks at the empty spot where Skye had been standing just a few minutes earlier and her eyes lands on the small red dots on the floor. Lowering herself down to the dots, she realised what she is looking at and her worry grows at once. She was quickly on her feet once more and heads from the gym. Agents were quickly walking past her, fear in their eyes and she could hear how the mumbling about Fitz and anger. She should have known they would have headed for the lab; but to scare of agents, that was something she had not expected to happen.

She enters the lab only to freeze at the sight. Fitz was working behind the CT scans computers and Skye was laying on the table, completely still and her eyes closed. Memories of when she had been shot returns and May pushes it all away, she was alive, there was no new gun wounds. But there was something else that was the problem now. The moment the scans shows up on the computer screen and May can see how Fitz goes pale, May can’t help but to fear the worst.

“What is going on here?”

She had tried to keep her voice balanced, but she could hear how it breaks slightly and Fitz jumps out of surprise. As he turns his head to look at her; she could see fear and worry; something that didn’t help her feel any better about everything that is going in this moment. Hearing footsteps, they both turns their heads to the side to see Skye enter the room.

“Didn’t I tell you everything is alright?”

She asks, she was back acting like her normal self. The only proof of what has happened is the tiredness in her eyes in that moment. She could feel how Fitz looks at her once more before his eyes turns back to the computer screen once more. May starts to walk over to Fitz to see what he was looking at; she was quite sure she wouldn’t understand it; but at least she tried to find out what is going on.

“What is it?”

Skye asks, fear has now crept into her voice and she moves towards the screen to. She had put her hand on the desk and May was sure that if she had not; she would be falling over once her eyes lands on the screen. She could see how Skye’s legs were giving out under her and she quickly puts an arm around her for extra support.

“I want you two to tell me exactly what is going on and that is now.”

She orders them, finally finding her normal voice once more. She was however keeping it somewhat calm as she spoke to them; the worry was still big inside of her after all. She could see how the two younger agents, two of her kids, looks at one another. A silent conversation was going on between them and May couldn’t help but wonder when they had managed to create that. She had seen Fitz and Simmons do it so many times, she knew that she and Coulson did the same. But to have Fitz and Skye doing it was another thing that was new, and she wonders once more exactly what she has been missing out on.

“When I first meet you guys, I had this brain tumour by the size of a grape. It was creating a lot of pain for me and I knew I didn’t have that much time left to live.”

Skye starts to explain, and her voice was broken, far more broken than May has ever heard it.

“I didn’t want to worry anyone or create a big fuss over it, so I kept it to myself. Then come the day when I was shoot and was a step closer to death door than I had ever been. You guys did however manage to find a way to save my life, the GH-325 didn’t just heal the problems the bullets created. It also took care of the brain tumour.”

She then continued, her voice growing weaker for every moment and May turns her attention towards Fitz once Skye finally stops speaking.

“The thing with a tumour like that one is that I can return.”

Fitz explains and he didn’t have to say anymore than that. May turns her attention back to the screen once more. She knew that Fitz and Skye could easily see what is wrong with the picture. But at least now she knew that there was something wrong and her eyes narrows. Her grip around Skye got firmer and she leads the young girl over to a chair. Skye sits down without a single word and May lowers herself down in front of her so that they are in eye level. She moves her hands and grabs hold of Skye’s. She could hear how Fitz moves his chair over to the two of them and soon his arm is around Skye’s shoulders.

“We are going to find a way to fix this. We are not going to let you suffer Skye, there has to be something we can do.”

She tells her rookie before she looks over at Fitz who is thinking hard beside her.

“I take it they never did an operation on you?”

He then asks and Skye shakes her head at this, it being clear that Skye had already started to give up on everything. Silence fell once more and May tried to think through everything she knows, going through the list of people who owes her something or if her mother had any connections.

“You need an operation Skye.”

She then says and she could see how Skye was about to go against her and she simply holds up one hand. The moment Skye gives up and looks away, May puts that hand back on Skye’s.

“I take it that you don’t want the others to know. That is fine for now, but sooner or later you will have to tell them.”

She then continues and Skye looks at her, it being clear she was trying to figure out what May is thinking.

“Besides, we can’t do that kind of an operation in this base. I know my mother has connections I could use, connections that could give us a very good doctor that can help you. I also have a few people that owes me a large favour. I was going to save that one for a special occasion, this is such one. They will be able to give you the best things for healing and there is no safer place to be during your healing time.”

May tells her and she could see that Fitz and Skye is having another silent conversation, this time she could at least read parts of it. They were trying to decide on what to do, she however couldn’t wait for them to decide.

“It’s not up for debate. Either you accept this, or I will have to tell Coulson about what has happened, and things will be much worse. This is the safest way, and no one will know where you truly are, and the people you will be staying with will have no problem at all to protect you if something were to happen.”

She adds and stands up, mostly to show them that she had more power in this than they have. Skye seemed to realise that there was no other way and she nods her head in defeat. May bows down once more at this, she let her wall down all the way now as she takes both Skye and Fitz’s hands.

“Both Fitz and I can be at the hospital during your operation and then make sure you settle in with the Avengers nicely afterwards if that’s what you want.”

She adds, her voice growing soft. Skye nods her head once more and she could see that Fitz relaxed to. Their calm didn’t last long however, and May could see the second they realised what she had said.

“The Avengers?”

May smiles, the question was out of their mouth at the same time and she could see hints of their normal selves once more.


	4. part 4

She finds herself in a car only an hour later, bags backed with her things in the trunk. May had not giving any rooms for questions about the bomb she had dropped. May had ordered her and Fitz to start packing as she herself made a few phone calls.

The fact that May knew the Avengers and that they owe her a favour didn’t seem to sink in. Then again, Skye was still trying to progress that May was now in on the secret that she had a tumour; and let’s not forget the fact that said tumour had once more returned.

Her head was starting to hurt, and, in that moment, she wasn’t sure what had cost the pain, she was hopping it was simply the fact that she tried to get everything sorted out. She could feel how someone takes hold of her hand and as she glances to the side, she could see that Fitz had taken it. He was however still looking out the window, but his grip was frim.

The silent act made her calm down, she had not realised she was stressing herself out in that moment. With a few deep breaths, she calmed herself down once more. Moving her eyes away from Fitz, she looks towards May instead.

“What did you tell the others?”

She asks, this had been one of the questions going around in her head and one she knew she could get an answer to now.

“Coulson wasn’t in his office when I walked past, I’ll call him once you are in surgery to tell him that I took you and Fitz with me to look something up.”

It wasn’t a direct lie after all, they were going to look something up and then take care of the problem. She was quite happy he had not been there when May had looked, if he had; they would still be at base with Coulson asking questions. This way, he wouldn’t be able to. But May and Fitz were in for a long talk once they got back home.

Suddenly, the fact that she would be spending time with the Avengers after her operation wasn’t all too bad; but deep down she was worried. She couldn’t help it; she had spent so many years trying to hide that part of herself and now there was no stopping anything. And to have May call in favours from her mother so Skye could get a safe and fast operations, that was large too.

This time around, she realised the was starting to stress herself out again before Fitz did and she leans back. There was nothing she could do now; her life was in their hands and for the first time ever; she wasn’t really scared about that. She knew May and Fitz wouldn't leave her once it was all set and done. They had become her family without her knowing it, and she was happy about that fact.

The hospital was in full movement the moment they step through the doors. Skye made sure to keep close to Fitz as May heads over to the front desk, speaking to the nurse in a low voice. Once she had gotten the information she wanted, May waves them over and Fitz more or less had to drag Skye with him. She really, really hates hospitals.

Reaching the corridor, May suddenly starts to slow down. Looking at her out of surprise and then follow her eyes, Skye realises why. A slightly angry looking Asian woman was in a deep conversation with the doctor and Skye really felt as if she was a kid again; back to the day she got the news. Now, she hated this place even more. Their talk soon comes to a stop and eyes turns towards them, out of an old reflex; Skye hides behind Fitz.

The action amused him, and Skye could hear him laugh softly, the act earned him a slap on his shoulder blade.

“Oh, shut it.”

She mumbles in a low voice, hopping a second later that only he had heard it.

“Skye.”

May's tone indicated however that she had heard it too. Looking over Fitz shoulder made her relax slightly. May's voice might have been harsh as she spoke, but she was giving her one of her rare half smiles.

“So, this is her?”

The older woman than asks, Skye had managed to forget that she and the doctor was there, and she nods her head weakly. Taking in her behaviour, May walks over to the woman she now realises is May's mother and the doctor; speaking to the two of them in a low voice.

“What's with you?”

Fitz managed to get out, he turns around so he can get a proper look at me; at the same time as he shields me from May, her mother and the doctor.

“I hate hospitals.”

Her answer was short and to the point. If it had not been for him and May, she wouldn’t have come here at all. Fitz gives her an understanding nod before putting one arm around her, both to calm her down and to make sure she wouldn’t try and run away. How he had grown to know her so well.

“Alright then, Skye. How about we start, the faster we can get you on the operation table the better. For all of us.”

The doctor soon speaks up and he gives her a warm smile. With a deep breath Skye nods her head before looking at Fitz and May.

“We’ll be here when you wake up.”

May assures her and Fitz nods his head at this, giving her a proper hug to. With a shaky leg, she starts to walk over to the doctor; as she passes May, her SO puts her hand on her shoulder and gives her a proper smile. This managed to calm her down a bit more. They were right, she knew it all to well.

It is best to get the tumour out now and get some proper healing now, then do it later when it is already too late. She didn’t want to lose the family she had managed to get now after all.


	5. Part 5

To say she wasn’t surprised to see her mother at the hospital was a lie, if anyone asked however; she would say she had expected it. But her mother had been curious to see who had managed to force her into contacting her about a favour, a favour that was about a hospital visit no less. The moment Skye was taking into surgery she left, pointing out once more that her organisation is still standing at least.

Melinda knew very well she would be hearing more of that comment from now on. She and Fitz had been moved to a waiting room and they took to the chairs in the corner. Silence was heavy between the two of them and she was trying to figure out the next few steps. She had been lying to Skye earlier, she had never walked past Coulson’s office; knowing fully well they still wouldn’t be here if she had told him she was leaving with Skye and Fitz. Some conversations are easier to talk to him about when you aren’t standing face to face.

After another five minutes, Melinda finally stands up. She could feel how Fitz looks at her out of surprise and she pulls out her phone.

“I’m going to call Coulson and I should probably call Maria and make sure they are ready to take in someone that has just undergone surgery. After that I will try to find some tea, would you like something to drink or eat?”

“Coffee.”

His voice was weak, but she could still hear what he said, she puts her hand on his shoulder for a few seconds before heading out of the waiting room. Walking down the many corridors of the hospital, she finds a good spot where she can make her calls without anyone interrupting. She looks through the contact list, not that she had many numbers on it, and calls Coulson.

“Coulson.”

“It’s me.”

“May! Where are you?”

“Skye found something when she was working, she wasn’t completely sure if it was something we needed to worry about or not. So, I took her and Fitz with me to check it out.”

It was always easier to put the reason as to why they were away on Skye, the chance that he would get angry is lower. He had been the first-person Skye had managed to wrap around her little finger, Coulson knew this fact and it didn’t really bother him, Melinda could see the care and worry in his eyes whenever Skye was around. She had a habit of ending up in trouble after all.

“Is everything alright?”

And there it was, the worry. She could simply tell him the truth, that no; everything isn’t alright. We are at the hospital and Skye is in that moment in the operation room. But Melinda couldn’t say that, she had promised Skye not to tell him and if she did, he would try to get there as fast as possible. It was already risky for them to be here with HYDRA still looking for them. Coulson wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about where she, Fitz and Skye is, and she knew the others would want to come too.

“Yes, everything is alright. I’ll keep you posted if anything change, otherwise we should be back to the base in a few days.”

She tells him, her eyes on the doctors and nurses that walks past her and she moves closer towards a corner.

“Alright, I do however want a proper report once you three are back at the base.”

He orders and Melinda smiles, he had just created a loophole for her and Fitz to use once they get back to base. It was going to be up to Skye to figure out on her own if se wishes to tell them all or not.

“Roger that.”

She tells him before ending the call, it had gone easier than she would have expected. But that was just one call, she still had another one to make; looking back at her phone, she called the number that would connect her to Maria Hill.

“Hill speaking.”

Melinda rolls her eyes at the short answer she got; she didn’t have to wait long for Maria to answer her.

“It’s me. I need you to do something without anyone knowing about.”

She tells her old friend, and she could see the raised eyebrow in her minds eye at her sudden request.

“What do you need?”

“Make sure you have a well prep hospital wing and a nurse on call at all time.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“You will understand once we get there. It will be a while longer however, so you will have enough time to get ready.”

She tells Maria and she could hear the former agent let out a deep sigh, but Melinda knew she didn’t have anything to worry about. The curiosity would win, and Maria would make sure everything is ready for when they reach the tower. Ending that call too, she moves from her hiding spot and starts to look for some tea and coffee for her and Fitz.

With the two cups and a bag with sandwiches for them, she wasn’t sure they would be able to eat them yet; but she knew that they would need food in their system at one time during the day. She finds Fitz sitting in the same chair as she had left him a while earlier. Walking over to him, she could see that he had not heard her and to make sure not to scare him, she holds out the coffee cup and sits down beside him once more.

“Did… did it go… alright?”

He asks after taking a sip of his coffee and Melinda nods her head.

“Coulson wants us to give him a proper report once all three of us is back at base.”

She tells him and she could see that even Fitz sees the loophole.

“Maria is going to make sure everything Skye needs once she gets out of here is fixed.”

She then adds and Fitz nods his head, silence fall once more, and Melinda starts to drink of her own tea. It wasn’t the best tea; it had to do for now at least. Her mind was with Skye and she could feel how worried she really is in that moment. She had to tell herself more than once that everything will be alright throughout the waiting time.


	6. Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me, just dropping of chapter after chapter here ;)

He really hates seeing her like this, he had hopped he would never have too see this sight once more. He had wished never to see her in this state after she had been shot by Quinn. With a shake of his head, he had to tell himself that this was different, this time she had not been shoot in the stomach twice. Fitz was sitting beside her bed, holding onto her hand. May placed herself beside the door the moment they had entered the room. They had been moved to the room once Skye’s operation was over and they were now waiting for her to wake up and for the doctor to come.

There had been silence between the two of them since May had returned from making her calls, Fitz had ended up passing around for a while; only to stop when May had asked him in a weak voice. The fact that she had not ordered him to sit down and just said his name had made Fitz sit down in a heartbeat. As the door starts to open, Fitz can see how May tenses up and Fitz keeps still. A man enters the room and closes the door behind him the moment he was inside.

“Agent May.”

His tone was short and to the point and May nods her head as a greeting. The man walks past her and towards the bed to check on Skye, Fitz made sure to keep his eyes on the man as he moved.

“Normally, I wouldn’t take on an operation with such little notice and with that little information; however…”

The man starts to say, turning his attention now towards May.

“Your mother didn’t give me a saying in the matter.”

He then adds and Fitz was quite sure he could see May roll her eyes.

“How is she doing Dr Strange?”

May then asks, changing the subject about her mother. Fitz zones them out after that, turning his attention back to Skye once more. He knew he should probably listen to what they have to say but at this moment he didn’t really care. Hearing the door open and close a few minutes later makes him turn his attention back to May, she was now moving towards him and Skye; taking over the second chair beside the bed.

“In short, everything looks good. All we can do now is wait for her to wake up.”

May tells him, he wasn’t all to surprise that she had thought he wasn’t listening to what had gone down at all. He just nods his head as an answer and silence fell once more. As the time past on, Fitz couldn’t help but to grow more and more worried. He knew he should have faith in what Dr Strange had told them, but it was quite hard to see Skye so still and quiet. It wasn’t like her to be this silent; not even this still; he knew she couldn’t control that this moment.

“Don’t you think we should wake him up?”

“We probably should.”

“Can you hand me that water bottle?”

“Don’t… even… think… about… it.”

His back was hurting as he tried to sit up properly once more, leaning forwards when sleeping wasn’t the best way to sleep. It wasn’t the first time he would fall asleep in the lab like that anyway; and it wouldn’t be the first time Skye would use water to wake him up. At the thought of Skye, he freezes up; memories of what had been going down returned in full force and Fitz finds himself sitting right up; something that didn’t make his already aching back better.

“Skye?”

She was sitting up in her bed, smiling towards him. She still looked tired and he knew that once she was off the pain medication she would not be smiling in that way. He also knew she wasn’t going to be happy about what had to be done with her hair. Glancing over to May, he could see that she was happy to see that Skye was awake, but he could also see that she was starting to get restless and worried. They had been staying at the hospital long enough and every moment was precious, they were after all being haunted by Hydra.

“We should be moving, Dr Strange has given me the clear to move you and I suggest that we do not stay here longer than we need too.”

May tells them, her eyes on Skye as she spoke. She and Fitz nods their heads and as Fitz rises from his chair; May helps Skye out of her bed. At least they had made sure to change her clothes so she would leave the hospital in those gowns. Once the former hacktivist was on her feet, May hands her over to Fitz as she herself makes sure the hallway is clear.

They moved slowly and steady down to the parking lot, Fitz being very happy that nothing out of the ordinary happened. He did however hear May mumbling something about agents being poorly dressed for undercover work and that she would need to have a talk with her mother about just that. Reaching the car, Fitz helps Skye into the back seat before entering himself.

“Stay low.”

May orders as she puts the car into drive. Fitz had almost expected her to speed drive to the Avengers; but seeing how May was following the law and taking what felt like many wrong turns he realised what she was doing, and he could see that Skye did the same. The young agent was looking over her shoulder from time to time; it looked like she almost expected that they were being followed.

“I think we are clear.”

She points out after a while and May nods her head; she do however take a few more wrong turns before she heads for the tower. As they were getting closer to the tower, Fitz couldn’t help to feel quite small. They had done quite a good work restoring the large tower after the battle of New York at least. May parked the car as close as she could get to the doors and then helped Skye out. They moved to the door as fast as they could and once inside, May scanned the room.

“Can I help you with something?”

A woman voice asked, turning his head to the side he could see her sitting behind the front desk.

“Maria Hill is expecting us. The name is Melinda May.”

May answered, the woman looks down on what seems to be visitor list before nodding her head towards the elevator.

“You can head right up.”

She tells them and May nods her head once more. The doors to their right opens and they move slowly inside. The ride up was a silent one and Fitz could feel the worry from Skye, glancing over at May; he could see that she had drained herself from all emotions once more. He tried to prepare himself for what was about to happen; what he saw the moment the elevator doors open was something he would never have thought of seeing.


	7. Part 7

The sight that greeted them was one of complete chaos. When she had thought about meeting some of her heroes, she had thought it would be under different circumstances and she would not have pictured the group acting like a group of children. Because according to Coulson, food fight is something small children do. Glancing past May to look at Fitz, Skye could see the same thing going through his mind. Once all of this was over, they would tell Coulson that grownups can have food fights too.

“Yeah, I have been trying to stop them all day.”

Skye jumps slightly, she had completely missed the fact that Maria Hill was standing right beside the elevator doors, her arms crossed and her eyes still on the grown-up children. Skye had only meet the former S.H.I.E.L.D agent once, when she had helped the rest of the team rescuing her from Ward, she couldn’t help but feeling a bit calm to have her around now. Seeing how May steps out from the elevator to stand beside Maria, Skye looks towards Fitz once more before they step after May; making sure they are hiding behind her since they have no idea of what to do now.

They were soon to learn exactly what would happen as May lifts one hand to her mouth and whistles hard. The reaction from the Avengers was instant as all five of them comes to a complete halt and heads turning towards them. This action had Skye taking a step closer to Fitz once more, she knew she should not be worried about this group; she knew May wouldn’t leave her with people she didn’t trust. Blame it on the pain killers she was on in that moment to play with her very own nerves about what is going on.

“Mel? What are you doing here?”

The only female in the group asked and Skye knew it every well belonged to Natasha Romanoff, the fact that the Black Widow is calling her SO Mel was something that made Skye look up. Seeing how May grow tense at the nickname, Skye already knew May had figured out what was going through her very own mind. She was not going to go through with that plan anytime soon however, that would just be too cruel, and it would be more fun to say it when the rest of the team was around to hear it.

“I’m here to cash in on the favour you and Clint owns me.”

May answers shortly, she was back to using the same tone she had been using when Skye had first joined the BUS; hearing it pulled out memories of all the mistakes she had done during that time. The sudden activity made her head hurt even more and she step back, Fitz; standing as close to her as he was, managed to grab hold of her to keep her standing. Looking at her close friend, she was quite sure that if they had not been standing face to face with the Avengers in that moment; he would have told May about my sudden burst of pain. Putting on of her hands on his, she squeezes it as a sign of gratitude, and she could see how Fitz just nods his head in respond.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier if you just called us to meet up somewhere?”

Natasha spoke once more, and Skye could hear that the voice had moved closer towards them. But before May has a chance to answer the question, a door to the side opens. Looking past Fitz, Skye’s eyes lands on who she knows is Pepper Potts. The CEO of Stark Industries was reading on a tablet as she entered.

“Maria, any special reason as to why there has been an increase in…

Pepper had not taking any notice about what is going on until she steps on the food that had been thrown around just a couple of minutes earlier. Skye could see anger building up in the woman and she carefully tries to shrink back behind Fitz, but she could not help but keep looking. She had after all heard quite a few things from Coulson about this woman. As Pepper lifts her head and is about to question what had been going on when she was gone, her eyes lands on Skye, Fitz and May and they narrows slightly. Skye puts on an innocent smile and waves slightly, however; something most have shown in her face as Pepper’s expression suddenly changes into worry.

“Are you alright?”

The question was out and within seconds, May has turn around to look at her. Swallowing hard, Skye moves her eyes to look at May and she knew there was no need in trying to lie about her being alright.

“Sit down!”

The order was clear and there wasn’t anything Skye could really do as Fitz makes sure she sits down; her back towards the wall. Putting down the bag she had been carrying with her, May starts to go through it before she pulls out a small container that Skye knew contained her pain killers and a bottle of water. Taking out the amount of pills she had been descripted for each time; May hands them to Skye with the water and a stern look. Taking the pills and the water, she swallows them down easily.

“Why didn’t you tell me the effects was staring to fade?”

The question wasn’t only directed towards her, it may have seemed that May had been talking to Skye in that moment; but her eyes were on Fitz. Looking at one another, the two former agents knew there was no chance they could get out of this without any help.

“What is going on?”

Natasha, once more. The whole group had now moved forwards and they were all looking over May’s shoulder to look at her and Fitz. Skye couldn’t help feeling like a small child again, it was the same feeling she used to have back at the orphanage when the nuns had thought she had done something bad; even if she was mostly framed or tried to stand up for some of the younger kids. By now Skye knew that this was nothing like that, but once more; the pain killers was really messing with her defences right now and she had to fight hard not to crawl away and hide behind Fitz. If she were to survive living with the group when she was healing up properly from the operation; she had to show that she could handle what was going thrown at her.

“This is the reason as to why you called me and made sure there was a room properly prepared for a medical…”

Maria had started to ask, only to trail of when May shoots her a warning look. The atmosphere was loaded now, and Skye was starting to slowly feel the effects of the pain killers. Looking from Maria and May, she could see a silent conversation going on and Maria soon turns hear attention towards Pepper. The CEO had put the tablet under her arm and only nods her head as an answer to the silent question.

“Go with Pepper.”

May order Skye and Fitz, with a look at her SO; Skye knew there was nothing she could do or say to convince her that she should stay. When she thought about it, she wasn’t completely sure she wanted to stay in the room and hear when May told everyone about what is going on. It was enough to have first-hand experience with it after all. Looking at Fitz, he took the hint and helped her up to her feet once more and Skye leans on him for support. May lifts the bag from the floor and hands it over to Pepper, there was a clear warning in her eyes. Pepper didn’t seem to take any notice to the warning as she calls for the elevator and let’s her and Fitz enters first. Looking at May, the last thing Skye sees before the door closes is a small nod of May’s head and her ghost smile.


	8. part 8

As the elevator doors closes in front of her, Melinda takes a deep breath to collect herself before turning around the meet the group in front of her, all who has their eyes locked on her. With a quick glance towards Maria and a small nod of her head. Her former boss realises what she was saying and starts to push the group towards the couches. The explanation was going to take time and it would be easier for everyone if they were already sitting down for it. Once they were all seated, Melinda could see that Natasha was once again about to ask what is going on and with a quick scan on the other Avengers, she could see that the former Russian spy wasn’t the only one.

“For those who isn’t aware of who I am, I’m agent Melinda May. The agent’s that is with me is Leo Fitz and Skye.”

Seeing the question in the Avengers eyes and the fact that Captain Rogers were about to point something out. Melinda simply holds up her hand to silent him but seeing that it didn’t help she looks at Natasha who quickly slaps him.

“Trust me Cap, let her finish speaking before you ask questions.”

Clint tells his teammate before turning to look at Melinda with a nod of her head. With a look of surprise, Melinda looks at Natasha once more and she could see that her old friend had the same surprise in her eyes. Shaking away the feeling of worry for now, she knew she would be able to handle Clint at any time.

“S.H.I.E.L.D still exist, it’s being rebuilt by a group that Fury trusted; well trust as much as Fury does that is. It’s still in a build up status.”

“Can we get back at hand, what is wrong with Skye?”

From the corner of her eye, Melinda could see that this time it was Stark who was about to make another comment. Natasha was fast enough to realise this and shut him up before she could send out a warning.

“It turns out that Skye had a brain tumour when we first picked her up from that van. According to Fitz, she had have it since 13 and she was living on overtime already.”

“Wait, if she have had a brain tumour since 13; how can she be alive up until now?”

Bruce, who had been sitting furthers away from Natasha to be stopped asked. The different between him asking and the others during this moment was something Melinda didn’t see a problem with. She just wished she didn’t have to see the memories from that day once more or even have to speak about it.

“A while back, before S.H.I.E.L.D fell, we were out on a mission that went wrong. Skye, on her own accord; followed the man we were tailing. According to her we had come to far to lose the trail once more, so she left Fitz to take care of the cars outside of the building and entered it by herself and with the rest of us not even close to the building. It all resulted in two bullet wounds to the stomach.”

She had closed her eyes at this, memories of finding Skye down in that cellar; the blood coming from her wounds, the lost of colour of her skin and there had been no backup for them. With a shake of her head and a deep breath; Melinda pulled herself back together.

“She was in a very bad state when we finally found her and if the room didn’t already contain a hyperbaric chamber, we would have lost her right there. It didn’t by much time, and they couldn’t save her at the hospital. However…”

She put more power into the however when she could see that Stark was once more about to open his mouth. Turning her attention to Maria, she spoke the next few lines; knowing fully well that the woman beside her what she was really saying next.

“Due to a member of our team, we knew there was someone that could help her. Someone that has proved to do the impossible before. Turns out that someone was a something; a serum going under the name of GH-325. At the time we don’t know its origin, but it helped; in more ways than we could have thought. It healed the gun wounds and it also took away the tumour.”

With another pause in her speech, she let everything she had said sink in properly and she could see from the look in Maria’s eyes that Coulson had failed to report what had truly happened that day. She knew that if Maria could, she would call Coulson right now and ask him what he was doing but she also knew that something else most be going on if it’s just Melinda, Fitz and Skye here and now and as to why Melinda would bring them here and not back to base.

“I take it that the tumour returned back then.”

Bruce speaks up once more and Melinda nods her head at this, expect from that there was a heavy silence in the room, and she could see that the team was looking at one another.

“She tried to hide it from me and the others, didn’t go well…”

A snort of laughter could be heard from both Natasha and Clint at this and Melinda turns her attention towards them. When they realises, she was looking at them and the hidden smile they shrinks back slightly. They knew they were about to be put on the line any minute.

“Along side with Fitz, we found out that it was back. I called in a favour with my mother and got her to a hospital right away to deal with the problem in our hands. Which leads us to the favour you two owes me. Now, she needs a proper place to stay to heal up, a safe place and thanks to Maria; a place with the proper medical supplies that she needs.”

Melinda finally finish off, looking at each one of them; challenge them to go against her on the decision. When no one did, she turns towards Maria who nods her head.

“Good, now I need to check up on Skye to make sure she is alright.”

She tells them, turning and heads for the elevator. She needed the moment alone to get her mind right once more.


	9. part 9

The elevator ride was a silent one, Skye was leaning towards him and he could see that she was starting to grow even more tired. With a quick glance towards the woman that has ended up as their guide, he could see that she kept her own eyes on the wall. Once it come to a stop, she step out first and holds the door open so Fitz could help Skye out without a problem.

“The room is just down here.”

She tells them and starts walking down the corridor before stopping in front of a door and pushed it open. To say he was not surprise was an understatement, and if he didn’t know that they were in the Avengers tower he would be quite sure the room the were entering is a hospital room. With a closer look when they were inside, he could see that there had been a few things added so it wasn’t all hospital liked. Something he was sure Skye would appreciate once she was feeling better.

He remembered how bored she had been the last time she had been ordered to stay in bed. It had been a bit of fun when she had tried to push all of Simmons buttons. How she tried to get Coulson to talk to Simmons about moving her to her own bunk or how May sneaked in a few things so she would be occupied for a little while at least.

Helping her over to the bed, he made sure she was properly tucked in before making sure everything else around her was working like they should. As he was going over everything, he started to realise just how much each, and everything would have cost and he couldn’t help but to feel slightly bad about it.

“H… how mu.. much did all of this co… cost?”

He finally asks, turning his attention to the woman behind him. She had not moved from the door opening and finally looked up at him.

“You don’t have to worry about that, we already have most of the things at hand. You’d be surprised how often this group ends up hurting themselves on a daily basic. There is however a few things Maria made sure we had extra of.”

She answered him with a warm smile, her eyes traveling towards the now fully sleeping Skye on the bed. Fitz could feel a calmness from the woman, making himself grow calm as well. Looking around, he finds a chair and pulls it over to the bedside to sit down.

“She will be alright.”

The woman speaks and Fitz wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement in that moment, but he nods his head and took hold of Skye’s hand. She had to be alright, there was so many people back at the base that would go crazy if she wouldn’t return back to them.

“I did forget to introduce myself I’m…”

“Pepper Pots, CEO of Stark Industries.”

Fitz finish her introduction for her and turns his attention away from Skye. He could see that she wasn’t angry that he had done it but simply nod her head, he had fallen into an old habit without even knowing it.

“I’m Leo Fitz, this is Skye.”

He tells her and Pepper nods her head, keeping silence once more. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable and as he turns his attention back to Skye once more, Leo could see how Pepper returned her attention back to her tablet once more.

“What is the name of the woman you are with?”

She askes after a few minutes, the sudden question made Leo look at her.

“Melinda May.”

His voice was careful as he spoke, unsure if he should even give out the name. Seeing how Pepper writs something into the tablet she was holding, Leo couldn’t help but to grow slightly worried all of a sudden.

“Don’t worry Fitz, I have added both your and agent May’s name into the list of people that are always welcomed. I have also made sure that you have access to this floor for whenever you two feel the need to meet Skye when she spends time here. Because I have a feeling that is the reason as to why the three of you are here today.”

She explains when she sees the worry in his eyes.

“That is good to know and thank you.”

He couldn’t help but to jump and the reaction from Pepper made him realise he wasn’t the only one that had missed May showing up. The older agent is standing behind Pepper now and she quickly takes a step into the room so May could enter without a problem. Seeing how May nods her head as a thank you she does. The first thing her eyes lands on once inside is the sleeping Skye and Leo can see how she starts to relax, at least as much one Agent Melinda May can relax that is.

“Did she fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow?”

Leo nods his head as an answer, not trusting his own voice now. Happy with the answer, May turns her attention back to Pepper once more.

“I take it you’re the one to speak to if something is needed or done properly?”

She asks and Pepper nods her head as an answer.

“Good, there is a few more things I would like to set up.”

May tells her and nods her head towards the door, with a quick look over her shoulder. She looks at Skye and him before she and Pepper leaves the room. Once gone and the door closed, Leo leans his head on the bed. Alone with an already sleeping Skye, he finally realised just how tired he was. He had managed to sleep for a little while at the hospital; that was however mostly because he felt completely drain after everything that had gone down that day. Looking at the sleeping Skye, it didn’t take long before he finds himself drifting off to sleep himself.


	10. Part 10

In this moment, Skye wasn’t really sure what she was going to think or feel. At one hand, she didn’t really want to May and Fitz to leave, but she knew that if she went with them; there wouldn’t be any time for her to properly rest. Not to mention all the questions Coulson would be asking at every given moment. On the other hand, she was curious about staying at the tower; or at least to see all the weird stuff the group would do once May wasn’t around to make sure none of them were doing something she would call stupid when she was around.

May had decided that it would be for the best if she and Fitz stayed a week, just to make sure she was doing alright. Skye herself thinks May is doing it so she could come up with a proper reason as to why she and Fitz are returning back without her, Fitz had after all told her all about the phone call May had done when she was in the operation room. At least Coulson had left a big loophole for them to use, not that he was aware of it at the moment. Skye knew that May was going to use this, she was however wondering if she should just tell her SO to speak the truth once she meets with Coulson once more.

That would however lead to Coulson wanting to find her and then things will get even more complicated, the Avengers are still being kept in the dark about Coulson being alive and that wasn’t really fair. They are being forced to hide a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who works for the man that brought them all together, a man they have missed ever since the battle of New York.

Hearing someone knock on the door to her room, a room that was far to big for just her, Skye pulls her legs towards her and hugs them.

“It’s open!”

She calls out, knowing that it would either be May or Fitz showing up once more. When the door opens and it’s Maria’s head that looks into the room; Skye lowers her legs down once more, mostly out of surprise.

“I see that you haven’t been able to follow orders.”

The former agents points out before entering the room and Skye rolls her eyes. May had told her to try and sleep, the more sleep she could get the better it was for her. Or rather, that’s was May’s idea of it all. She on the other hand was no longer tired, not after all the sleep she had been forced into during this week and she knew she would sleep when the time was right. Besides, May and Fitz is packing up their things in the rooms they had been staying in and they would soon leave anyway, and Skye wanted to be awake to say goodbye properly at least.

“Not tired.”

Was the only answer she gave Maria who nods her head. The former deputy director moves towards the chair that had been permanently placed beside her bed and sits down. Somehow, Skye got a bad feeling about this, through out the week; she had heard some stories about every single one of the inhabits of Avengers tower and she had after all meet Maria before. She knew just how scary the agent could be when she put on that side.

“And by the look of it, a lot of things going through your mind at the moment too.”

And she is just as good as May when it comes to reading people, with a heavy sigh, Skye leans her head back towards the wall.

“I’m starting to question if I should just tell May that it would be for everyone’s good that she tells Coulson what has happen, why I’m not with her and Fitz when they return back to base today. But if she tells him that they had to take me to the hospital and that they then left me at a safe place to rest, he will demand to know where I am and if I know him right; he will rush over here the moment he learns.”

“Sounds like something he would do yes.”

“I wouldn’t really go against him; the only problem is…”

“The only once that knows he is alive is the two of us, May and Fitz.”

Skye was quite happy she didn’t have to finish what she had started to say, turning her attention towards Maria; she could see how she had fallen into her own mind for the moment. This wasn’t really what Skye had have in mind, but at least she wasn’t the only one trying to figure out what to do with all of this.

“Knowing May, she already has a plan figured out for what will be said once she and Fitz returns. I think it’s for Coulson’s best if he isn’t told about this, not now at least. He already has to much on his plate, building up an organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D takes a lot and we both know he would drop it all to make sure you are alright.”

Skye nods her head; Maria was right about that. He had really gone up and above to get her back from Ward after all.

“It will give us time to try and figure out if we should tell the Avengers the full truth or not.”

“For the long run, I think we should tell them. Fitz will be calling a lot and I have a strong feeling the others will to sooner or later. Not to mention, Stark, Natasha and Clint have been trying to get me to tell them some funny stories and most of them involves Coulson. The only reason I haven’t been able to tell any so far is because May has managed to show up just in time every time.”

“So, we wait until May and Fitz has left to figure out what our next move will be?”

“Sounds like a brilliant plan.”

“What is a brilliant plan?”

At the sound of May’s voice, both Skye and Maria jumps slightly. Turning their attention towards the door, they could see that both May and Fitz are standing there. May’s arms crossed as she looks at the two of them with narrowed eyes. Swallowing down the worry that had rise within Skye, she tries to smile as sweetly as possible. She knows however that this is something that doesn’t work on her former SO, the fact that she is even trying the move means that she has already lost.


	11. Part 11

“Make sure to at least try to stay out of trouble, don’t let them talk you into something stupid.”

He could hear how Skye laugh slightly as he hugged her, he was really going to miss have her hanging around in the lab. He had grown quite use to it after all and it would take some time to get back to normal once more. Releasing the hug, Leo takes her in properly. He could see that she was still slightly tired; she was however finally starting to look better and he knew she needed the time away. If she could do this, he would be able too handle the others, after all; he and May would be leaving Skye alone with the Avengers.

“Oh, I think I will be able to handle them.”

She comments with a wave of her hand and he rolls his eyes.

“Promise me that you will try and open up to the others? Don't lock yourself up in the lab again once you get back.”

She then adds, turning serious once more.

“They are all idiots.”

“Fitz!”

The sudden laughter in her voice made him smile, he had not heard that one properly for a long time now and he finally relaxes. Now he was sure she would be doing fine.

“Well meaning idiots.”

“I can't really say anything against that so yeah, well meaning idiots that want you around. So please, for me.”

“You know that was a low one.”

He tried to look annoyed, he really did. But with the grin Skye was having in that moment it was a hard battle that he gladly lost. Shaking his head in defeat, he feels how Skye grabs hold of his arm before pulling him back into a tight hug once more.

“Make sure to call me as often as possible.”

She speaks in a low voice, making Leo hug her closer.

“I will, if you will promise the same.”

“Absolutely, who else would I tell about all the weird stuff this group will end up in?”

Her light and humours voice back once more, he could however detect something else in it too.

“Just, come up with a good reason as to why you need to come and visit me too from time to time.”

She adds, and the seriousness was back in her voice once more. She had really come far from the girl they had picked up from her van. She may try to deny it, but the training with May had turned her more into her SO than she would admit. Especially in moments like that, he knew however that she would be falling into her old routines and habits the moment he and May have left the building.

“I’m sure May and I can figure something out.”

“We can figure out what?”

Within seconds, he and Skye steps away from one another, breaking the hug only to see that May and Hill had somehow walked up to them. Swallowing down the lump that had somehow been created in his throat now, Leo tries to come up with a good explanation to what they had been talking about in a low voice.

“To find a way to come and visit me from time to time.”

Skye answered before he even had the chance to do so, which makes Leo feel a bit better. He knew however that he would be spending a long car ride with May in a few minutes so he really should try and get use to this sort of things by now.

“We will make sure to come and visit as often as we can, don’t worry about that.”

The calm and collected voice coming from May made Leo look at her properly. Ever since she had learned about Skye being sick, he had come to see a whole new side of her. Sure, he had seen the video tape of what she had done to Ian Quinn after they learned that the hospital couldn’t save Skye. Seeing how Skye smile and carefully steps forwards, May actually let’s the former Hacktivist hug her and she hugs her back. Leo must blink a few times just to be sure that he is seeing right, but once he is sure, he starts to smile.

“Now…”

May starts to say once she breaks the hug a few seconds later and Leo could see how Skye rolls her eyes.

“Rest as much as possible, don’t let the Avengers talk you into doing something stupid and follow the doctor’s orders.”

She finish of for her SO and he smiles, May’s own answer was to narrow her eyes, but he could still see a hint of spark in her eyes at least. When she finally turns her attention back to him, Leo can feel how he tense up for a few seconds before telling himself to relax.

“Ready to go?”

“No, but we should.”

Turning his attention to Skye one last time he smiles.

“Remember what I told you.”

“As long as you keep your own promise.”

With a final hug, he grab hold of his bag and starts to follow May towards the elevator. The ride down and to the car was a silent one and so was most of the ride to the base. As they were starting to get closer, he started to grow more worried over all of it.

“What will we do now?”

“You will head back to the lab and just act as normal; I will handle Coulson and make sure that he doesn’t ask you any questions. But if he should start to ask or any of the others would, just tell them you have orders from me not to tell anything.”

May answered and he nods his head, letting silence fall once more.

“Are you going to tell him where Skye is or is that going to be kept a secret?”

“He will not learn about the where abouts of Skye or the fact that we had to take her to a hospital. The Avengers on the other hand will learn that Coulson is alive.”

Looking at her with large eyes, Leo couldn’t believe what she had just told him. One part of him was feeling sorry for Skye for having to tell them all that the man they had been looking up to and mourned was in fact still alive. The other part of him kind of wanted to be there to see their reaction. He guess he would have to ask her how it all went once he calls her later that night.


	12. Part 12

Coulson was waiting for them the moment we enter the base, arms crossed, and eyes narrowed as he follows the SUV. From the corner of her eyes, Melinda can see how Fitz are tensing up beside her. Parking the SUV, she leans back in the seat and looks over at the young engineer.

“I’ll deal with Coulson, just head to the lab or your room.”

She tells him and Fitz nods his head before taking a deep breath, seeing that he is ready to leave she opens her door first. As she steps out, she sees that Fitz has followed her and with a small nod of her head to the side, Fitz takes off. Turning her attention back to her old friend, it was clear Coulson wasn’t all to happy having Fitz head off.

Collecting herself, she starts to move towards him. Walking up the stairs, she sees how he is about to open his mouth. With a shake of her head, she heads for the main part of the base. The conversation that was about to go down between the two of them was one that couldn’t happen in the middle of the garage.

Leading him through the base and towards his own office, Melinda realises something is wrong whit him. Glancing over her shoulder, she can see how tired he looked. She knew her longest friend was under a lot of stress lately, then there was the effects of his recovery starting to show just added to it.

Reaching the destination, Melinda pushes the door to let Phil enter before her. He enters and as she steps in herself, Melinda is sure to close and lock the door behind them properly. Turning around, she can see that Phil had taken his seat, with a small shake of her head, Melinda keeps standing.

“So, what is going on here?”

“Nothing I can tell you at the moment.”

“Melinda…”

“You said I could tell you when we were all back, as you might have seen, we are not all back.”

From the look in Phil’s eyes, she was sure he had not fully realised that Skye had not been with her and Fitz upon returning. She could also see the moment when he realises that he had left a loophole and there was no way to get around it now.

“For the moment, just know that everything is alright. Everyone is alright and when the mission is over, you will learn all about it. Skye is at the moment in a remote location, a place only Fitz and I know where it is.”

Melinda explains, making sure to cover most questions he would normally ask. Seeing that he still wanted to ask question, she takes a deep breath, it was time to change the subject.

“Now, let’s talk about you breaking your promise. I thought we had a deal Phil; you were to call me when you felt another attack coming so that I could be there to watch over you.”

She crosses her arms as she points it out and she could almost see Phil shrinking in his chair. Taking a deep breath, she narrows her eyes. With a sigh of his own, Phil rises from his chair to open the hidden door, showing the carvings he done on the wall. They were more than the last attack and Melinda starts to worry once more.

Once Skye was properly in place and the avengers had learned that Phil was alive, she really needed to have a word with Maria about the T.A.H.I.T.I procedure and maybe find a way to get rid of this side effect. If anything, she could always ask Stark and Banner to help out, at least once they have gotten over their anger.

Moving from the spot she had taken in his office; she moves towards the wall to take a closer look at what he had done this time around. It was all a mess, and she couldn’t begin to figure out what it all meant.

“Have you managed to find anything about this yet?”

The answer she got was a shake of his head, by now it all seemed like a lost hope. Before the conversation could continue, there was a knock on the door. Sharing a look with Phil, he quickly covered up the carvings once more as Melinda turns her attention towards the locked door.

“Yes!”

“Wanted to mention that dinner is ready.”

Simmons voice spoke from the other side, turning her attention towards the clock that had been placed on the desk, Melinda realised that they had been in the office longer than she had thought.

“Thank you, Simmons.”

Melinda calls back, hearing the young biochemist walking away from the door once more. Moving towards the door, she unlocked it once more before looking over her shoulder. Phil was looking at the wall, it was clear that his mind was somewhere else.

“Do I need to worry about another attack?”

“No, I was just thinking about something else.”

He answered, turning to look at her once more. Together they walk down to the common room, seeing that everyone had already shown up. Taking her seat, her eyes lands on Fitz who is sitting by himself once more. She knew that Skye had asked him not to at least try and be part of the group once more, she knew however it was going to take him a little while.

“Has anyone seen Skye? She wasn’t in her bunk and I couldn’t find her anywhere in the base.”

Simmons asks once Phil joins the table, since her eyes was kept on Fitz, Melinda could see how he shrinks down at the mention of Skye.

“Skye is at the moment doing work off base.”

She answers, keeping it short and leaving no room for more questions. Melinda could see how the agents around the table looks at one another. Silence fell over the table after that as everyone eat their food. Hearing a phone signal ringing in the room, Melinda could see Fritz freeze up once more and she rolls her eyes. She had a strong feeling about who the caller is.

“You can take it, just tell her that I will call her later for a mission report.”

Melinda tells him with a small smile, at the all clear, Fitz was on his feat and through the doors, phone to his ear the moment he passes the door. She smiles slightly at his happiness before shaking her head, she could feel the others eye on her, she ignores it for now. They would learn the truth when the moment comes.


	13. Part 13

The moment she steps through the elevator doors, finding herself in the living room, Skye knew things were about to go down. Maria had told her to comedown; she couldn’t hide in her assigned room for the rest of her stay. She had told the former S.H.I.E.L.D agent that May had ordered her to bedrest when she had left, only to have Maria ask when she had started to follow orders. Realising that she had no way out, Skye just gave in.

Now, seeing that Maria was standing in front of Tony, Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Clint and Pepper, clearly waiting for her to join them, and Skye knew why. She had tried to push this conversation for two days now, hench her hiding in her room. She should have known Maria would get tired sooner or later and force her down to deal with the problem. And not for the first time during these two days, Skye finds herself regretting that they had not have had this conversation when May was still in the building.

“Shit.”

She tried to keep her voice low when letting her small curse slip out.

“Language.”

Skye looks at Steve, feeling her eyes grow out of surprised at his comment, with a quick glance around the room, Skye sees she’s not the only one.

“Good, now that you are here, we can start.”

Maria takes the lead, deciding to ignore the comment Steve had done. However, there was one person in the room that wasn’t going to let it slide however.

“Wait a second. No one else is gonna deal with the fact that cap just said language?”

Tony asks, leaning forwards where he’s sitting to look at the rest of his team.

“I know, just slipped out.”

Steve answered, head being lowered in defeat. Looking towards Maria, Skye could see that she is starting to get annoyed with the conversation. Giving her a small smile, Skye places her beside Maria. There is no turning back and this had to be done sooner or later, before she knows that there will soon be calls from the rest of them.

“Alright, enough. Maria and I have something very important to tell you all.”

Skye pulls the attention back to her once more, only to feel how she’s starting to grow worry. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she’s happy once more that she actually had Maria around.

“And for gosh sake, watch your language.”

Tony comments with a smug grin, making the rest of the team smile.

“That’s not going any time soon.”

A deep sigh was heard from Steve, making all of them laugh. Feeling that she’s starting to relax once more, Skye takes in a deep.

“Alright, now that we have gotten over the fact that Steve will tell us to watch our language whenever we curse.”

Skye points out, making the group laugh once more, even Steve joins in this time around. With a look towards Maria, she could see that the older agent is thinking the same thing that she is.

“Coulson is alive.”

In this moment it was just easier to drop the news, instead of building up a case. The reaction was instant, the laughter stops within seconds, all eyes on her and Maria. Looking at the Avengers team and Pepper, Skye can see the different emotion going through their eyes, anger being the most common one. Seeing all of the anger, Skye takes a step back out of reflex.

“WHAT!”

Tony managed to pull himself together first and he even rose from his seat. Seeing how her oldest friend react, Pepper pulls herself together and grabs hold of his arm to hold him back. Seeing Tony’s reaction, Skye fights the urge to hide behind Maria. Maria took this moment too start to explain what happened that day, what went down after the attack in New York.

“The reason as to why neither of you, or anyone belove Level 7 were inform that Coulson were still alive, is quite simple. What he had to go through, was still in testing and we weren’t sure what the side effects would be. We still don’t know what they are. Fury didn’t want to try and find out what they were. So, he sent Coulson to Tahiti for some recharging before giving him a mobile unite. Making sure to keep him away from things that would be able to trigger memories from what went down in New York. Fury believed that if he were to end up face to face with you all, it would trigger his memories to fast.”

Looking at Maria, Skye takes in every single word she’s saying. She also compares this information from the little information she had been told and she knew that someone is lying, she just couldn’t figure out who or if it was just a simple fact that neither Maria or Fury really knew what had been going down on the BUS and after HYDRA showed their ugly faces.

“Only Fury, myself and the head doctor knows what went down that day. Agent May was pulled out of administration, told what she needed to know and was put on the mobile unit, to keep a close eye and report back if Coulson was starting to show any symptoms of a side effect.”

Maria continues on and there it was, the reason as to why Skye had a feeling someone is laying. May hadn’t told Maria or Fury exactly what she knew or what is going on. And Skye wasn’t surprised over this, May always did her best to protect her team. She herself was a good example of this, she had gone through a lot to get her into surgery and find a place where she can take it easy and heal up.

Looking towards the Avengers, Skye could see many emotions going through their eyes. The anger had gone down, pity and worry were not the strongest emotion among the people. And she could understand them, if she had been where they are now, being told that a close friend they thought were dead, a friend they had mourned over were in fact out there alive and well, she wouldn’t have taken it good either.

“Trust me, he wanted to contact you all. On so many occasions, but Maria, May and I are giving you all an upper hand right now.”

Skye speaks up, the Avengers and Pepper turning their attention towards her.

“Coulson doesn’t know I’m here right now. May told him I’m out on a off-book mission and only she and Fitz can contact me at the moment. That means, when I'm all healed up and ready, I need you guys to take me back to the base. You will be able to just show up, wave a hand and telling a very confused Coulson you already knew he was alive.”

She explains, hopping that they would accept this condition. There wasn’t much she could do to stop them if they wanted to go and haunt down Coulson right now, and from the look if it, more than half of them wanted just that.

“He doesn’t know about your sickness?”

Pepper asks and Skye shakes her head, happy that someone is still keeping their head cool.

“He would freak out if he knew about the tumour. He sees her as a daughter and he has already gone through fire twice to save and protect her. It will destroy him if he were to find out now, especially when building up a new S.H.I.E.L.D is already taking much out of him.”

Maria takes a step forwards, ready to explain further if needed, at the same time trying to keep the super team in line.

“Just imagine being able to completely put Agent Phil Coulson in shock while walking down the corridors of new S.H.I.E.L.D when the time is right.”

Turning her attention towards Tony as she spoke, Skye hopped that the rumours about him and loving a good surprise and prank would be true. The shift in his eyes told her it was.

“Fine, but we are not done talking about this!”

Tony finally says, pointing a finger towards Maria, eyes narrowed. Letting out a sigh of relief, Skye could feel how she's starting to grow tired once more.

“Come on! You need to rest!”

To Skye's surprise, it had been Natasha who had spoken up and the red-haired assassin was beside her in no time. Knowing fully well she wouldn’t be able to argue her way out of this one, she let Natasha lead her towards the elevator once more.

At least it had gone somewhat alright.


	14. part 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this is the last finished chapter I have at the moment! More is on it's way!

”So, how is things going over there?”

“It’s absolute madness.”

Skye was shaking her head, a smile playing on her lips. It had been almost three weeks since they had left Skye at the Avengers Tower and this was the first time, he had seen her face since then. They had been talking every evening, this was however the first time she had accepted a video chat.

“Well, from what I have heard before, you are having a good time.”

“The number of stupid things that goes on in this building, it’s absolutely crazy.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

At this, Skye leans closer to her own screen, a serious look now taking over har face.

“Stark can change the floor to look like lava with a push of a button!”

This made Leo look up from what he had been working on.

“How did that go?”

“Instant chaos!”

This made him laugh, with what he had seen the week they had spent at the tower, he can almost imagen how it all went down.

“At least you are getting a lot of training.”

This time it was Skye who is laughing hard, making Leo smile. He had missed seeing her happy face. He knew he wasn’t the only one in the base that did.

“Alright mate, who are you talking to in here?”

Rolling his eyes, Leo turns his head towards the lab doors just in time to see Hunter entering the room.

“You haven’t managed to get ride of that one yet?”

“No/Oi!”

Him and Hunter said at the same time, before staring at one another. It took another few second before Hunter realizes who made the comment and turns his attention towards the computer screen to see a grinning Skye.

“Skye?”

“Hello Hunter, still trying lay low or have you shoot anyone else on my team?”

“I did apologies for that.”

Hunter comments, eyes narrowed as he stares at Skye. Looking at Skye, Leo could see that she’s somehow keeping calm and collected. Had this been a few weeks ago, she would have been showing of more of her emotions. Seems like spending time with the Black Widow were rubbing of on her.

“And have May forgiven you yet?”

And there it was, the same stoic looking face Leo had seen so many times on May. Seeing it now on Skye’s made a chill run through his body. Until that moment he hadn’t realized how similar the two were to one another. Hunter on the other hand, didn’t give her an answer, instead he turns around and walks out of the lab once more and Leo could hear how he is mumbling to himself.

“You know the others will be here within minutes once they learn from him that I’m in a video call with you.”

“Yeah, I know. JARVIS!”

“Miss Skye.”

Leo smiles as he sees the hacktivist rolls her eyes at the miss part.

“You haven’t hacked him yet to fix that?”

“I will. JARVIS, I don’t want anyone to enter or even knock on my door until I’m done with this video call. If it’s something important, tell them to just text me.”

“Will do.”

Hearing running footsteps, Leo turns to look over his shoulder to see Trip and Jemma coming to a complete halt at the door opening. As their eye’s lands on the computer screen, Trip starts to grin large and steps into the room.

“So, he was telling the truth, what’s up girl?”

“Some time has to be first. It’s good to see you Trip! And I see you to Simmons!”

Hearing her name, Jemma enters the lab carefully to stand beside him.

“It’s good to see you Skye, where are you even calling from?”

“That’s classified.”

They all jump at that, even Skye flinched slightly on her end of the video call. Leo, along side with Trip and Jemma, turn their heads around to see that May and Coulson is standing in the door opening this time around.

“May! Perfect! Since you are here, I won’t have to call you later. Everything is going along as we planned, no complications or any new development.”

Skye says, smiling slightly and Leo can see that May rolls her eyes and there is curiosity in Coulson’s eyes about what is going on.

“Nice try Skye, I will still call to night.”

“It was worth a try.”

Leo can hear mumble and he smiles.

“It was a very good try.”

“Do not encourage her Fitz.”

May warns, making Skye laugh this time. He can feel Trip and Jemma looking at him and he shrugs, it would be a to long story to explain and even if he would, then he would give away the secret that he keeps with Skye and May.

“Can we talk about something else that isn’t me being stuck in this place all alone.”

Skye points out, trying to change the subject.

“Tell me, has anything fun happened when I was gone?”

“Oh, you know, work, work.”

Trip comments with a wave of his hand and Skye rolls her eyes.

“Please tell me something fun have happened.”

“We had a movie night, I don’t know whose idea it was to pick a horror movie, but Hunter screamed like a girl.”

Jemma tells her, making Skye burst out laughing, Trip and Leo smiling big at the memory.

“I think it was Bobbi’s revenge.”

Trip adds and Skye just shakes her head on the other side of the computer screen.

“That wouldn’t surprise me. But please tell you got it on video?”

“I’ll send it over to you later.”

“Leo! You are an angle! And tell Bobbi that she is an awesome woman!”

He chuckles at this, hearing and seeing the happiness in Skye was lifting his spirit. It had taken some time to get use to not having her around in the base or in the lab with him. At least things have become better between him and Jemma, they didn’t get into as many arguments anymore, but it wasn’t like the old times. He missed those old times, but he also knew he had an awfully long way to go before he could even come close to that once more.

Feeling her eyes on him, Leo turns his head to the side to see a slightly worried looking Skye. She didn’t have time to say anything before a sound could be heard on her end of the call. She looks down and smiles slightly.

“Well, I have to go. Work is calling me. Yes, yes, I will call you later with a full report agent May.”

Skye tells them and with a quick nod of her head, the screen goes dark. Silence filed the lab and Leo turns his head slightly to look towards May, seeing how she shortly nods her head.

“Agent May, any idea of when Skye would return back?”

Jemma asks, turning her attention towards May who keeps the same stoic face Skye had done earlier and a shiver went through him once more.

“Once her mission is over, at the time being, we don’t know when that will be.”

May’s answer was short and to the point, and before anyone else in the room had a chance to speak up, she turns to leave. Looking after her, Leo has a feeling he and Skye would hear about the video chat later.


	15. part 15

To see the smiling face and the laughter coming through Fitz computer screen had been a sight for sore, it would been a lie to say Melinda had not been worried about leaving Skye with the Avengers. She knew very well that the young agent could handle herself and she had Maria by her side if needed.

But she knew how Skye reacts to pain medication and it took a lot out of her trying to keep that insecure and worry down. She had spent many hours sitting beside Skye’s bed the last time she was put on a bed rest during the nights, watching her crumble down, alongside all the constant nightmares. Forcing that memory away at the time being, Melinda tries to focus on what she knew for now.

And that is simple, for now, Skye is safe and sound in a building with the words strongest people to protect her. And right now, things are going as good as they could. Skye has been keeping up with her reports, granted, more than half of what she reported back is the crazy things that is happening within the walls of the Avengers tower. Her reports from Maria later on would at least go deeper into how Skye had been holding up during that day, and so far, everything had been going just fine. It was not until two days later that the first problem suddenly shows up.

“Everyone is clear about the plan?”

Coulson asks, his eyes scanning the agents in the room, almost challenging them to question another one of his crazy plans. They had only become more daring and dangerous, all in a hope to find out more about his episodes, not that anyone except Melinda and himself knew about that factor. When no one spoke up, Coulson nods his head.

“Good then…”

He starts to speak once more, only to be interrupted by a phone signal, a signal that was coming from her phone. Looking down, Melinda could feel all eyes on her as she takes the phone to answer, not checking the id to see who was calling.

“Hello.”

“Ah, Mel perfect. Could you either come over here or try to talk some sense into your rookie?”

Natasha Romanoff, Melinda is now happy that she had been furthers away from everyone, so no one had at least been able to see the information about the caller.

“What is going on?”

“We are supposed to take Skye to the hospital to meet with Dr Strange so that he can do a proper check-up, you know. Just to make sure that he managed to get all of the tumour and that her wounds are healing like they should.”

Natasha explains, reminding Melinda about something she really shouldn’t have forgotten. The fact that Skye is freaking out about going back to the hospital wasn’t something she were surprised over. Glancing towards her phone and then looking towards Coulson, she can’t help but to feel tourn. Both of them needed her, and she couldn’t decide which one of them needed her the most in this moment. With a quick sweep of the room, her eyes lands on Fitz and she makes a decision.

Lifting the other hand, she waves Fitz over to her before handing over the phone, not saying a word to either of them. Seeing the confused look in Fitz eyes, he takes the phone and puts it towards his ear.

“Hello?”

He greats carefully, not sure what he would hear on the other side of the phone line.

“Yes. What is going on?”

Melinda can see the moment Fitz realises why he had been handed the phone, the young engineer looks at her, his eyes narrowed slightly.

“Well, no shit Sherlock.”

A small gasp went through the room when they heard that line coming out of Fitz mouth.

“If you were her, how would you think about all of this? That’s what I thought.”

Looking his eyes with Melinda once more, she can see the silent question and she nods her head to answer it.

“I’ll come over and help you out.”

He tells Natasha before hanging up, holding out her phone towards her once more. It was however when Melinda takes her phone back that she can see something change in his eyes. Something had dawn on him, and she lifts one eyebrow to question what it is.

“If you are going with them, how will…”

Fitz starts to say, not finishing the line, knowing very well that he can’t finish it. No one else in the room knew about the whereabouts or what had happened to Skye after all. Looking down at her phone, now in her hand. Melinda looks for Maria’s number and starts to write a message to her.

“I’ll fix with transportation, just go and pack what you need.”

She tells him, seeing Fitz nod his head, he heads out of the meeting room before anyone can question what is going on. Looking away from her phone, Melinda could see all eyes on her, and she rolls her eyes.

“I still have to make sure Skye’s mission is going down without any problems, now wouldn’t I?”

She asks, her eyes locked on Coulson as she does. Her oldest friend had that worried look in his eyes once more and not for the first time Melinda starts to question if they should just tell him what is really going on. Then she remembers that telling him isn’t her job and Skye doesn’t want to worry him, she herself doesn’t want to worry him to much at the time being. What he needed now was to focus on two things, building up S.H.I.E.L.D and trying to fix his obsession carving.

A carving obsession Melinda is happy hasn’t formed withing Skye and she truly hopes it wont either. Hearing the signal of an incoming message, Melinda looks down on her phone once more. Seeing a reply from Maria, she turns towards the door.

“I’ll be able to leave within 20 minutes, I do suggest everyone else will be too, or I will have a take-off alone.”

She tells them before leaving the room. Coulson could always tell her about the last few things about the mission once they are in the air, what she needed to do now is make sure they are not in the base when Fitz pick up arrives.

Finding the engineer, Melinda carefully knocks on the doorframe, not to scare him. Fitz, turns at the sound of the knocking and he calms down slightly, seeing as it’s only her.

“I will take of with the team in 20 minutes, make sure to be down in garage in 30. Maria will be here to pick you up and take you to the tower. Be careful when you are there and don’t let them force you into doing something crazy. I’ll pick you up once we return back from the mission.”

She tells him, only to have Fitz nod his head as an answer. There was however a spark in his eyes and Melinda knew just why. Even if he is forced to go there to take Skye to the doctor, he is still happy to go. He would be seeing here face to face once more and she knew he and Skye had missed this, missed having their sibling around 24/7, to drive the other one cray or make sure they are alright.

They both needed this and the only reason she is letting Fitz stay in the tower for a longer time, is because she needs to see Skye herself too.


	16. Part 16

She knew very well that she’s acting like a child in that moment. It didn’t mean she cared, however. She also knew that the people in this building just wants what’s best for her and having her acting like this didn’t really help them. But there is no way she would go back to the hospital! She has gone through the surgery, according to May, Dr Strange had told her everything had gone good and according to the doctor Pepper had coming to the tower, her wounds were healing like they should.

So, Skye couldn’t see a reason why she had to go back to that horrible place. The smell, the whiteness, the sounds of all the different machines. People coughing, crying out in pain and just dying all around her. Just thinking about it, made Skye even more scared and she tries to make herself even smaller.

She is happy at least that May isn’t around to see her like this, or saw the full out panic she had gone into when Maria had told her about the hospital visit a few hours ago, or had she just told her five minutes ago? She had lost track of time, all she remember is how it started to get harder to breath, the room was both too big and too small for her at the same time and she had left them.

Now she’s hiding in her closet, as far into the corner as she can get. Small places helped, her van and the back of the SUV during her stay on the BUS had always been her hiding spot whenever the pain had been to much or just the weight of her secret where out of hand. Since she didn’t have either, the wardrobe was the next best thing in these ridicules large building.

Taking in a few deep breaths, Skye tries to remember what May had told her during training, how to control her breathing and lower her heartbeat. At the beginning, she had hated to wake up at 5 am to do morning Tai-chi, now she understand why May had forced it. It took a few minutes, but she started to calm down and the feeling of panic started to disappear, leaving her tired instead.

A sudden nock on the wardrobe door, made her look up. A sudden flare of panic and fear run through her, alongside old memories she thought she had buried deep down in her memory to ever resurface. Moving closer to the wall beside her, Skye keeps her eyes on the still closed door, to afraid to let any type of sound.

“Skye? It’s just me, Leo. Do you mind if I come in?”

Hearing Leo’s voice, Skye losses the last of her control, tears streaming down her face. She never answered his question, but when she let’s out a loud sob, the door pulls open and she found herself being pulled into a tight and warm hug. Turning her head, Skye cries into Leo’s shoulder and the young man she had seen as a brother almost from day one just let her.

She doesn’t know for how long they were sitting like this, on the floor of her wardrobe, but she was starting to hurt. Feeling how she was slightly moving; Leo let’s go of her. When Skye finally looks at him, she can see the worry in his eyes.

“Do you feel ready to get out of here or would you like to stay for a bit longer?”

He asks, keeping his voice low. Opening her mouth to answer him, she starts to cough instead. She had been crying for a while, she needed something to drink and seeing this, Leo was on his feet within seconds.

“Stay here, I’ll grab some water for you.”

He orders, as he walks out of the wardrobe, he closes the door once more. She wasn’t all to sure she was happy with that or not. But for the time being, she decided it wasn’t worth thinking about. What she should be thinking about is why Leo is here. Neither him or May had talked about coming over to visit any time soon, mostly because there was a lot going on at the base and they needed all the hands-on deck. So, calling and doing that one video call had been all the contact she had have with them. It was then it hit her, someone, she expected Maria, must have called May and told her about Skye freaking out and Leo had been sent to help. Which meant she would be forced to go to the hospital.

As the door opens once more, Skye looks at Leo with narrowed eyes, hopping that there at least was some hint of anger in them. And if there was, her best friend is completely ignoring it as he sits back down and hands her a water bottle. Taking it, Skye starts to drink carefully, keeping the silent between them and happy that Leo isn’t trying to push anything. Then again, this is Leo, he always made sure she is alright, and he always gave her the space she needed.

“I’m not going.”

She finally speaks up, feeling it was better to just get it over with.

“I know.”

Turning her head to the side, Skye blinks a few times. Only to remind herself that she should be surprised over this. He had after all seen how she reacted when they reached the hospital, and this wasn’t his first time having to deal with a long healing process from her.

“When Hill picked me up, I forced her to call Dr Strange to change the meeting…”

He starts to explain, only to hold up his hand when he saw that Skye was about to argue with him.

“I also forced her to change the meeting location. Dr Strange will come to the tower to do the check up the day after tomorrow.”

He finishes, his eyes on her to see how her reaction would be. Looking back at him with a blank face, Skye is trying to take in everything he had just told her. Not for the first time had the young man beside her gone beyond everything to make sure she was safe and sound. Without a word, Skye leans towards him once more, hugging him tightly. A hug that was quickly answered.

“We should start thinking about moving away from your wardrobe, you have been in here for almost 3 hours. You need something to eat and the Avengers are worried about you. I never thought I would see or even hear the day Natasha Romanoff would be this worried about anyone.”

Leo tells her five minutes later. This made Skye move slightly so she could look at him, mostly to figure out if he had been joking. The time she had spent in the wardrobe wasn’t what she is hanging onto at the moment. The fact that it had been Natasha that had made the call, that was something new. And something she had not expect to happen, she had thought Maria and if not her, Pepper. It being Natasha, this took the whole thing to a new level.


	17. Part 17

The woman he had grown to see as a sister was a complete mess in this moment, it was a wounder that he had managed to get her out of the wardrobe when he did. Thinking that the mention of food and that she had been in there for three hours were the main reason for this. He had however made sure to push her towards the bathroom first, telling her that she should probably wash her face with some cold water, just in case if she didn’t want the Avengers to know she had been crying.

Skye had done what he said without saying a single word. Leaving her alone in the bathroom, Leo starts to walk back and forth in her room, trying to decide if he should text May about what had happened and what type of state Skye had been in when he was taken to her. One part of him knew that May would want to know all of this, the other part also knew that right now wasn’t the time. May had made the decision to stay and help with the sensitive mission, if she were to find out that Skye is in a state like this, she would turn the BUS around and come to the tower without a second thought.

Know wasn’t the time for the rest of the team to find out about Skye, it would just put more stress on her, and he didn’t want to see that. She had already gone through enough today and she needed to just rest and take it easy. He had been happy when Maria had managed to change the time and location for Skye to meet with Dr Strange, he had been worried the doctor wouldn’t find time to do this and still push for a meeting at the hospital. Maria had done an incredibly good job in that conversation.

Hearing how the door opens behind him, Leo turns to look at Skye. The redness in her eyes were gone and she didn’t look as tired anymore. Holding out his arms, Skye gives him a tiny smile before stepping into the hug.

“Feeling better?”

“Much, thank you Leo.”

Her voice was still weak, but Leo couldn’t blame her for that. Giving her a reassuring smile, he starts to walk them out of the room and towards the elevator. The ride down is a silent one, Leo did however keep glancing towards Skye, just to make sure she is alright and that she’s still there. He couldn’t shake the feeling that if he didn’t keep an eye on her, she would end up disappearing. Blaming that feeling on the stories she had told her about when she was younger and how many times she had run away.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

And she had managed to read his mind once more.

“What makes this different from all the other times, I know neither of you would send me back. You have already proven you actually want to have me around.”

She adds and Leo smiles, pushing his shoulder towards her.

“Of course, we want you around. We need to have an annoying little sister after all.”

He teases, only to earn a slap from Skye. She was however smiling with all she had, and Leo happily accepted the punch. As the elevator comes to a stop and the door opens, the two siblings find themselves standing face to face with Natasha. Leo could see that there was worry in her eyes the moment the door opens, but when Natasha’s eyes lands on the smiling Skye, she relaxes.

“Happy to see someone managed to get you down where, the pizza just got here after all.”

She tells them, making Skye and Leo look at one another.

“Pizza?”

Skye asks out of surprise and Natasha nods her head with a smile.

“Neither one of us was in the mode to actually make any dinner. And Tony pointed out that pizza is the perfect comfort food, which made Pepper complain that he was eating far too much pizza and cheeseburgers and it wasn’t good for him.”

Natasha explains, making Skye laugh loud. Hearing the laugh, Leo and Natasha smiles bigger. With a nod of her head to the side, Natasha leads him and Skye towards the kitchen. As they enter, Leo could see the madness that had already started.

“SKYE!”

Tony calls the moment he sees her, holding up a slice of pizza in the air as a greeting.

“Don’t play with the food.”

Maria complains with a heavy sigh, Tony lowered the slice but the look in his eyes told Leo that this was just the beginning. Taking in the rest of the people in the room, he can see the same spark in Clint, Natasha and Skye’s eyes. With a shake of his head, Leo takes the seat beside Skye, hoping that if he stays close to her, he would be spare to what ever crazy things they had all planed.

He had however been wrong on that part, they had let everyone eat in calmness for almost 15 before the first slice of pizza was being thrown through the air, hitting Tony right in the face. It didn’t take long for him to answer back with fire. Throwing a few things himself, Leo finds that he is soon being pulled away from the kitchen, with a look over his shoulder to see who is doing the action, he is surprised to see that its Natasha, Maria and Pepper already waiting in the hallway.

“You planned this didn’t you?”

He asks when Natasha stops beside Maria, he should have seen this coming. Maria and Natasha nod their head and Pepper rolls her eyes, it was clear that the CEO wasn’t all to happy with the plan, it didn’t go past her however it was a highly effective one.

“How is she? Really?”

Natasha is the first one to ask the question Leo knew they have wanted to ask the moment he and Skye had entered the kitchen. They had however been keeping the question to themselves when eating, not wanting to steer up another panic attack. With a heavy sigh, Leo turns his attention towards the kitchen, seeing how Skye is hiding in a corner with Clint, obviously planning an attack on the other three.

“For the moment, she’s as good as she can be. But this is the first time I have every seen her this broken.”

He tells them, it was feeling good to have someone to talk to, since he can’t call May in the moment. Seeing the worry in the three ladies’ eyes, Leo can just wonder how bad the attack had been before he and May had been contacted.

“For now, let her just have fun and let her rest. I guess you told them that Dr Strange will come here?”

Leo continues, his eyes landing on Maria who nods her head.

“I just can’t believe we didn’t think of that from the start.”

She adds and Leo shakes his head with a small smile.

“This is not on either of you. I guess Skye never told you she hates hospitals?”

When the three ladies shake their heads, Leo let out another sigh.

“At least we can control a few things now, but I would suggest not mentioning the hospital for a while.”

He tells them, he could feel that he is starting to grow tired himself. It had been a long day and a big rollercoaster one at that.

“What are you four doing out here?”

Hearing Skye’s voice, Leo turns around. She was standing in the door opening to the kitchen, worry in her eyes once more and Leo gives her a smile.

“Oh, we were just talking about if we would allow you all to watch movies or if you children are ready for bed after that food fight.”

Natasha answer, Leo happy that he didn’t have to come up with a lie. The Black Widow was known to be one of the best liars out there. Hearing what Natasha had said, Skye’s eyes grow large and she turns her head to look into the kitchen.

“PUT DOWN THE PIZZA OR THERE WON’T BE ANY MOVIES!”

She orders, leaning to the side, Leo sees past Skye and can see that Clint and Tony were both about to throw a slice each on one another. Hearing Skye’s order however, they did as they were told, and Skye smiles big once more. The worry forgotten for the time being, but Leo is sure it will return once she relaxes. At least he was going to be in the building for a few days, he could be around to be there and support her when she needed it, just like she had been there from him when he had woken up from the coma and during his healing prosses, even if she herself had been in a bad state herself.

“What are we going to watch?”

“How about the Police Academy movies?”

“Leo! As always! You’re reading my mind! CLINT! Get the popcorn ready!”

Leo smiles, it had been a long day, and it was far from over yet.


	18. part 18

Landing the BUS, Melinda could feel how much energy that had been drained from her. Having a run in with HYDRA was never fun, especially when it's part of a trap. They are short on agents and she had to spend one of them away, but she rather have Skye with the Avengers in the state she's in than having a Skye, keeping her pain and dying to herself.

Walking down from the cockpit, her mind stayed on Skye and Leo. She had hopped that Leo would have contacted her on what had been going on, the sudden silence was making her worried. Knowing she should probably stay and help Phil with everything that had gone down, Melinda also knew she had to check up on the two kids.

Walking past the team, hearing Bobbi call out her name, Melinda keeps her focus on keep walking. Leaving the BUS behind, she heads for the garage to take her car. She already had a bag packed with things she needed in it; she had already decided on leaving once they had returned.

Before speeding out of the base, she makes the phone call.

“Hill!”

“It’s me! I’m leaving the Playground now and are on my way.”

She tells Maria and she is quite sure she can hear the former agent let out a sigh of relief, that wasn’t a good sign.

“Good!”

“How bad is things?”

“They are good at the moment…”

“But.”

“I’ll meat you down in the garage. It’s easier to explain face to face.”

This just made Melinda even more worried than before. Hanging up the call, it didn’t take long before her phone started to ring once more. Having a feeling who it might be, Melinda rolls her eyes and answers the call.

“Yes?”

“Where did you go?”

Phil, just like she had expected.

“On my way to make sure Fitz and Skye is doing alright and haven’t created more problems for themselves.”

There was silence over the line for a few minutes at that, he had forgotten that Skye and Fitz had not been with them on the mission. Sure, Fitz were meant to stay at the base any way, so there was no surprise there. But Skye haven’t been to the base for a little over a month now, she guesses she could let him forgetting this slide, for this moment at least. He is quite stressed out at the moment anyway.

“Are they?”

“Last I heard, everything is fine. That’s all I can say, and besides, you are the one that told us that we could tell you once everyone is back so.”

She tells him, hopping this would make him ask any questions for the time being. She would need to have a word with Skye about how she wanted to do things once she’s ready to come back to the Playground. If she even wants to return back. That thought made her tense up, not knowing where it had even come from.

“Just tell them I said hi.”

Hearing Phil’s voice, Melinda managed to pull herself back to reality once more. She could try and figure out the answer to that question later.

“Will do.”

She tells him, before ending the call as quickly as possible. It seemed as if she has a lot of things she needs to go through, now however, the only thing that’s important is to make sure Skye is alright. Seeing the tower growing closer, Melinda speeds up more, driving past down to the parking space underneath the building. Her eyes lands on an already waiting Maria. Seeing her long-time friend’s blanked face, Melinda takes a deep breath before leaving the car.

“Maria.”

“Melinda.”

They looked at one another for about a minute before Melinda lifts one eyebrow, asking the silent question about what had been going on.

“She had a full-on panic attack when we told her she needed to go back to the hospital for a check-up. It wasn’t a fun sight, she run away and ended up hiding in her wardrobe, that’s when Natasha decided to call you. Fitz managed to get calm her down, according to him, she had been in a very bad state.”

Maria starts to explain, confirming Melinda’s fears on how bad it had really been.

“Fitz however made me call Dr Strange when we were driving back form the Playground, to change the time and place for the meeting.”

She adds and Melinda smiles, she should have known he would try and pull something like this. He had grown very protective during these times.

“And how did that meeting go?”

She asks, deciding that it would be better to just focus on the good things until she could talk to Skye and Fitz alone.

“Oh, he had to cancel. Which is probably a good thing, the new meeting is tomorrow.”

Maria tells her and Melinda rolls her eyes, she started to wonder if it were Dr Strange that had to change the time a second time or it had been Maria in hope that she would be around to deal with Skye.

“Where is she and Fitz at the moment?”

“When I left them, they were winning over Stark in Mario Kart.”

Maria was smiling big at this; it was clear that there was something else behind it all and Melinda couldn’t help but to wonder if she wants to know what had been happening during Skye and Fitz free time alone with the Avengers. Having a feeling they had been doing as much crazy things as possible to keep Skye in a good place. Turning towards the elevator, she and Maria enters. The ride up was a silent one and the moment the door opens, the first thing she hears is Skye’s victory laugher and Melinda smiles.

“And it sounds like Clint owes me another 20 bucks.”

Maria comments and Melinda shakes her head, so the archer still haven’t learned to make any bets with the ladies of S.H.I.E.l.D. With a sigh, Melinda steps out of the elevator and heads towards the room where she hears the sounds. Skye and Fitz are leaning towards one another, laughing hard, Tony sitting beside them, not looking all to happy. Clint was trying very hard not to laugh as hard as the two kids are, Natasha didn’t even try to hide her grin.

“Are you making trouble again?”

Melinda asks as she steps through the doors, arms crossed and one eyebrow lift.

“MAY!”

Skye calls out, she was of the couch within seconds and before Melinda has a chance to react, Skye had thrown herself around her neck in a tight hug. Freezing up for a few seconds, Melinda tries to understand what had just happened, she does find herself hugging Skye back a second later. Looking over Skye’s shoulder, she could see the look Clint is sending Natasha and she could almost hear the comment’s that would be coming her way later on.

“I got them for you.”

Melinda tells Skye, keeping her voice low. This made the girl take a step back, eyes large in surprise.

“You’re joking?”

Lifting one eyebrow at this, Melinda let that be the answer and she could hear Clint and Natasha laughing lightly. Skye is smiling big and is out of the room within seconds. Looking after her, Melinda shakes her head before turning her attention towards Fitz. The young engineer looks at her and she nods her head with a small smile.

“You did good.”

She tells him, making Fitz smile too. Nothing else could be heard as the sound of running feet are coming toward them once more, Skye entering the room once more, out of breath but smiling big.

“What are you up to?”

Natasha asks, and it almost looked like she was worried about what is about to happen.

“Oh nothing!”

Skye waves her hand, which only made it all worse.

“JARVIS!”

“Miss Skye.”

“One of these days… Anyway, could you ask Steve to get up here, as fast as possible!”

“Right away Miss Skye.”

Melinda could see how the young girl in front of her rolls her eyes at the comment from JARVIS and Melinda was surprised she still haven’t fixed it yet. Seeing that Skye has turned her attention towards herself once more, Melinda pulls out a small package from her jacket, being careful. Handing over it to Skye, she looks at it with a big smile.

“You wanted to see me Skye?”

Hearing Steve speak up behind her, Melinda turns around, nodding her head as a greeting to the former soldier. Steve nods his head back.

“Steve, perfect! Could you do me a big favor?”

“I guess?”

“Could you sign these for me?”

A silent fell over the room as Skye holds out what looked to be a deck of cards.


	19. Part 19

She wasn’t a happy camper; she was far from a happy camper in this moment. Her eyes were locked on the doctor who’s talking to May in that moment. Sure, the Avengers and Fitz had made sure to change the time and meeting place for the check up with Dr Strange and Skye is happy that they go through all this trouble just for her, didn’t mean she wasn’t happy to see the man once more. She knew she should probably be listening into what is being said, they are talking about her health after all. She knew May would tell her if anything were of big importance.

Turning her attention back to her hands once more, she wished for a third time she had been allowed to take her phone or laptop with her, mostly so she had something to do with her hands. She hated being this still, there was so much she could be doing in this moment, she could be hacking into JARVIS to make a few changes to the program, maybe hide a few things from Tony. She could be playing Mario Kart with Leo and the others; listen to some crazy things the Avengers had done or even listen to the stories Steve could tell her about WW2.

Anything is better than sitting where she is now. She would even take tell Coulson about all this over where she’s right now and telling Coulson about all of this is something she really don’t want to do. She had imagined many times how that conversation would go, and most of the times it wouldn’t have ended all to well. Feeling the familiar tightness around her heart and throat, Skye rises from the chair. Without a single word to either May or Dr Strange, Skye leaves the lab and heads directly for the elevator.

She could feel how May and Dr Strange had looked after her when leaving the room, but in that moment the only thing she could think about was to get away. She didn’t have to tell JARVIS where she wants to go, the elevator starts to rise to floor where her room is located. Eyes locked on the door to her room, Skye misses that someone else is on the floor. Dropping on her bed, she can hear how the door opens once more.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Just tell me.”

Lifting her head from the pillow, Skye looks at Leo who is standing right by her bed.

“Why do you need to know so bad?”

“So, I can cheer you up.”

Leo smiles, making Skye narrow her eyes. She didn’t need this right now.

“It’s not your job to cheer me up.”

“Yes, it is. Cheering you up is my job.”

Letting out a huff of annoyance, Skye sits up in her bed properly to look at him.

“Well then you fired.”

“You can’t fire me, I’m your brother.”

Blinking a few times and hearing what he had said, Skye moves out of her bed in a flash, lunching herself onto Leo in a tight hug. She knew that he sees her as a sister, just as much as she sees him as a brother. But hearing him call himself her brother was a new level. Feeling how Leo rubs a few circles on her back, Skye slowly starts to calm down.

Hearing a knock on the door, Skye lifts her head from Leo’s shoulder to see the door open, May’s worried face looking in. When her eyes lands on her and Leo, the worry in her eyes go down. This moment, Leo takes the opportunity to move away from her slightly.

“I’m going to go downstairs to fix something up. May, could you make sure she’s down there in a few minutes?”

He asks and May nods her head as an answer. Rising, he starts to head for the door and Skye grows worried at once.

“Leo!”

“Still your brother, and as your brother I take my job very serious!”

He calls over his shoulder and before she can say anything else, he’s out through the doors. With a deep breath, Skye pushes herself up and onto her bed once more, the floor wasn’t the most comfortable to be sitting on. Turning her attention towards May once more, Skye can see that’s something is bothering her.

“Is something wrong?”

She asks, suddenly regretting that she hadn’t listen to what Dr Strange had been talking about. If it was something bad, she doesn’t want May to repeat it. When the older agent sits down beside her on the bed, an act that made the worry and fair grow.

“So far, everything is looking good. But as we have seen before, this tumour can return if we are unlucky. We already saw that the GH-325 wasn’t enough to destroy the tumour for good, and neither is an operation. Dr Strange suggests that you start seeing him on a regular basic, just to check, so that we can stop it quicker if it were to return.”

May starts to explain, deep down, Skye knew she would have to continue meeting with the doctors. Pulling her legs up, Skye leans her head towards her knees, arm hugging her legs in the progress. Feeling a hand between her shoulder blades, Skye doesn’t move.

“However, after seeing your actions today and learning just a bit about what happened the other day, Dr strange has agreed that you can do the check-ups from here.”

May then adds, this made Skye turn her head to look at the woman beside her. She had not expected Dr Strange to suggest something like this himself. She could however live with doing the check-ups in this building, even if the medical room they have build in the tower is giving her almost the same anxiety as a hospital.

“Come on, I did promise to bring you down. We don’t want your brother waiting, do we?”

Skye had been surprised over Leo calling himself her brother, that surprise is nothing compered to the surprise she’s feeling right now. Looking at May, Skye tries to figure out if the older agent had just called Leo her brother or not. Seeing a small spark in her eye, Skye realises that she had not heard it wrong and may had in fact called Leo her brother.

Taking a deep breath, Skye nods her head and rises from the bed. Walking beside may, the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents heads for the elevator. The ride down is a silent one, just like the one up had been for her a few minutes ago. But the moment the elevator doors open once more, Skye starts to question if the Avenger’s really are as old as they say they are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I even made a small video for the Skye and Leo scene ^^'
> 
> https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMe8hky99/


	20. Part 20

As the elevator doors opens, she couldn’t help but to wounder if the group she had left Skye with are grown ups or not. Because the chaos that she and Skye is meet with is not what one would have expected from a group of adults, and then there is the fact that this is the group that will be called in when the world is about to end. Looking around in the crazy room, Melinda tries to locate Fitz which was apparently harder said than done. At least what he had created was done for a good cost, what Skye needed now was to feel happy and loved.

From the corner of her eye, Melinda could see how Skye shakes her own head, a small smile playing on her lips, however. Deep down, Melinda knew very well that once things were getting back too normal, Phil wouldn’t have an easy moment anymore. When ever he would tell them to act professional, they would just tell him that if the Avengers could do things like this, so could they. Then there would be a conversation between Phil and the Avengers, mostly Natasha and Clint, because according to Phil, they should know better.

“And there she is! We were trying to decide if we needed to send someone up there to force you two down!”

Tony calls out the moment he sees her and Skye, a comment that makes Melinda roll her eyes. Seeing that Fitz walks into the room, from opposite side of where she and Skye are standing. For a split second, Melinda got worried that Fitz wasn’t the one behind all of this after all. The look on Fitz face told her that it is his doing after all.

“Good, now that we are all here, let’s get this party started!”

He calls out, Tony being the first one to hold up a glass, Natasha, Clint and even Pepper joined in on it. Glancing towards Skye, Melinda could see worry flash through her eyes at the sight of the glasses.

“Don’t worry, Fitz and I made sure they are all non- alcoholic.”

Pepper says, turning to look at her, Melinda could see that she had not been the only one that had seen the worry.

“Wait…. WHAT!”

Tony had been taking a sip of his own drink when Pepper had explained that it was non-alcoholic, spitting the drink once more. This resulted in Steven and Bruce having to jump towards the side, at least in a try not to get the drink over themselves. The action made Natasha, Clint, Maria, and Skye laugh, Melinda finds herself smiling, mostly since Skye is laughing.

Seeing that Skye is finally calming down and stepping away from her side, Melinda heads to stand with Maria. The former agent handing over a drink, her eyes are however locked on Skye, the young agent had joined Fitz, Natasha, and Clint by now, the four of them laughing about Tony complaining that there were no real drinks going around.

“How did the meeting go?”

“Better than I had expected, there was an attack, at least Fitz was ready for her when she left the room.”

“What will happen now?”

“She needs to see Dr Strange on regular basis, however, she won’t have to go to the hospital for that, he will come here. Just don’t tell Stark about this until it’s really time.”

Maria laughed at this, her laughed made the rest of the team look over at them. As she looks at Fitz and Skye, she could see a hint of worry in their eyes, but with a small shake of her head, they both calms down.

“Alright, let’s get this started properly. Skye! Think fast!”

Clint speaks up, turning her attention towards the archer, Melinda sees the balloon flying through the air, directly towards Skye. The girl quickly catches the balloon, something flashing in her eyes before they narrow.

“Oh, it is on!”

She calls out, and within seconds, the balloon is being thrown around in the room. Before Melinda has chance to fully react on what’s going in, there’s more balloons in action and one of them hits her in the head. Grabbing hold of it, she looks around to see the mysterious grin on Clint’s face.

“I would say run, but there is no chance you outrun Mel.”

Natasha points out, after seeing what happened. The grin was gone within seconds and he do turn around, throwing himself behind Skye and Fitz.

“What are you doing?”

“Hiding from the mama bear.”

“Skye, Fitz.”

Seeing how the two agents turns their attention from the hiding archer towards her, she nods her head to the side. Seeing the smiles on their faces, the two agents’ steps to the side, leaving her a clear target. The fear in Clint’s eyes were enough to make Skye laugh once more and three balloons were being thrown at Clint.

“HEY! What gives?”

Skye and Natasha are at this moment leaning against one another, laughing hard. She founds herself smiling and with a look around her once more, she sees she’s not the only one.

“Well, you did have it coming Clint. You should know better than to target Melinda, especially when Natasha is around and now it’s clear that there’s a second one on team Melinda.”

Maria points out as Natasha and Skye gives one another a high five. Clint let’s out a heavy sigh, rising from where he had tried to hide.

“I will remember this!”

“Oh, I’m still waiting for all of the other paybacks you have promised.”

Seeing how Natasha and Clint locks their eyes on one another, Melinda rolls her eyes. It would take a while before either of them gives up.

“So, bro. What else did you have planned?”

“We could always continue on the games.”

“I’ll pick them up!”

“I’ll make sure we don’t have enough food that can be used as weapons again.”

Tony had sprinted out of the room when Fitz had suggested the games and Pepper quickly started to clean away the food that had been brought out, Steve helping her there.

“OI! Tasha, Clint! Knock it off! Or I will bring out the heavy weapons again!”

This made the two assassins break their weird contest, which surprised Melinda. She did however have a habit to breaking through everyone defences without a single problem. Melinda is still trying to figure out how she had managed to break through her own and when it had really happened. That’s yet another question she could try and figure out for another time, in this moment, the only thing that mattered is that Skye is well and happy.


	21. Part 21

“Are you sure you will be alright without me?”

“Yes! Now go away! You’re being far to annoying!”

He smiles at the eyeroll coming from his sister, the answer to his question makes him shake his head. He knew she was feeling a lot better now, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she would end up falling into the dark once more. He had however told Maria what she could do if it were to happen once more and neither he nor May couldn’t get here fast enough.

This time around they had been in luck, next time they might just be on a mission already when the phone rings. That’s something he didn’t want to think about, the only thing he could focus on is the fact that she’s safe where she is. And if anything, this group have proven that they will do anything to make Skye smile once more.

“Oh, come on, you love me!”

He jokes, knocking his should into hers. Hearing Skye laugh lightly, he gets showed to the side and he accept his defeat for now. Hearing footsteps in the hallway, the two of them turns their attention to the door just as May steps into view.

“Are you ready to head back?”

“According to this one I am.”

He answered, pointing towards Skye who replies with showing him in the back for good measure. Seeing how May shakes her head, Leo knows it’s about time to cut things short and let her drive the two of them back to the base once more. Turning around, Leo holds out his arms, knowing he doesn’t have to take a step forward. With a smile, Skye steps into the hug herself.

“Call me, no matter what it’s about or what time it is!”

He tells her in a low voice, making sure to tighten his hug. Feeling how Skye tighten the hug on her end, he takes that answer as a yes. Releasing her, he takes a step back, only for May to take his place. The first time he had seen the older Agent show this level of affection it had surprised him a lot. Now it was just as normal as the fact that he is close friend with the Avengers. Two things that is well kept secrets.

Seeing May and Skye break up the hug and May placing her hand on his shoulder, he nods his as a final goodbye to Skye before being lead down the hallway. Everything was going smooth until they reached the parking lot where they got stopped by Tony.

“Do you really have to leave right now? I need your input on one of my new designs.”

Blinking a few times, Leo tries to figure out what is going on. He had not expected something like this to happen, the fact that the Tony Stark needs his help, that was completely crazy. Glancing towards May, he can see that even she is surprised over what just happened, he can also see the stress deep within her eyes.

“Hand me the papers and I’ll look them over at the base and I will call you with what I think?”

This was the best way for now, because he would be crazy if he passed up the opportunity to help the Tony Stark. Seeing how the avenger smile, Leo takes it that he had made his day.

“Stay right here and I’ll get everything on a flash drive. JARVIS, start the downloading progress!”

And with a flash, the billionaire was gone from sight. Shaking her head, May leaves his side and heads for the car, loading it up with their bags. Leo stayed put, letting his mind wander what project Tony wants his help with. After a few minutes of waiting, the man shows up in front of him once more, a large smile as he holds up a flash drive.

“Everything is on here! Make sure to give me a call as soon as you have gone through it!”

Tony tells him before heading off once more. Shaking his head, Leo heads for the car, seeing how May turns her head to look at him. As her eye’s lands on the flash drive, he could already hear what she’s about to say.

“Don’t worry, I will look into it when I’m alone and no one else is around.”

He says before May has a chance, seeing the tiny smile Leo enters the car. The drive back to the base is a silent one, not that he would have expected something else. They were both tired and had a lot to go over by themselves before they could talk it out. And Leo couldn’t help but let his mind wander off to what Tony had put on the flash drive. As they got closer to the base, he had made his decision.

As May turn of the car, Leo was out of it, grabbing hold of his bag he heads directly for his room.

“Fitz!”

Hearing Simmon’s voice, he comes to a stop, however. Turning around, he sees her and the rest of the team siting in the common room. They all looked at him with surprised and he couldn’t really blame them. He had disappeared without giving a proper explanation and now he shows up only to run past them all.

“Sorry! No time for talking!”

He tells them before heading for his room once more, he could talk to them all later. Entering his room, he drops the bag only to reach for his computer. As he waited for it to start, he finds himself twirling the flash drive. The moment the computer has started, he enters the flash drive, only to be meet with security lock. Letting out a deep sigh, he starts to work his way through it, he should have known Tony would have put something like this on it.

10 minutes later he’s past it and he smile. A smile that disappears as he opens the files, feeling how his eyes grow large at the sight in front of him, he reaches for his phone. Going through his contacts, he finds the number in question and makes the call. He didn’t have to wait long for the person to answer his call.

“You want me to help you with the new Mark’s weapons?” 


End file.
